Sounds like its the graphics card driver causing the issue. This isn't the expected behavior in windows. Graphics cards and shell programs can cause this issue.
Copy Paste dialog not displayed in the foreground or as the focus window
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Anonymous
every time I copy or paste & the dialog needs me to answer an overwrite, etc... the focus of the window doesn't come to the foreground of all the open windows.
VERY annoying.
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
2015-10-19T14:19:06+00:00 Disabling the "launch folder windows in a separate process" option worked. Thanks a million. Don't have chrome, but had the problem with the dialog box not being the focus. Disabled the "launch in separate process". Problem went away. Re-enabled the option, problem came back.
Running 8.1 on an HP envy, all drivers, windows updates, etc are up-to-date.
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Anonymous
2015-12-22T11:20:10+00:00 Thank you. This also fixed it for me on my brand new Asus laptop. Never happened before even on another Acer Windows 10 laptop, so it must not have had that option selected on it. Anyway confirmed unchecking the "Launch folder windows in a separate process" box fixed it for me.
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Anonymous
2016-04-16T08:36:40+00:00 In file explorer, View, Options, Change Folder and Search Options,
unchecking the "Launch folder windows in a separate process" box seems to work for many people. It didn't for me, BUT choosing Restore Defaults did work for me. Now the copy dialog is (finally) in the foreground again!
This was driving me crazy. At first I often copied things several times because I thought the copy hadn't started. Sometimes I'd shut down without noticing copies/moves hadn't been done. Grrr
NOTE: A side note - another File Explorer issue:
In the same settings (Change folder and search options) if I choose disable showing recent folders/files in Quick access, then when I right click on folders on the task bar, I don't have any options. I can't open another explorer. I can only view and switch between already open File explorer windows. Even after enabling these two options, it still doesn't work. I have to Restore defaults again. Sigh... Wait, that didn't fix it this time! I'll have to rely on Win + E like I had been doing.
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Anonymous
2016-04-16T18:51:04+00:00 For everyone still facing this issue (after applying all fixes listed on this thread):
It started happening again on Windows 10 for the first time a few weeks ago, but I managed to find something buried deep inside the 8.x forums regarding the "foregroundlocktimeout" reg value.
I researched a bit and after reverting its value to 0 (it was 200000 or something, changed by an application), the file dialog issue never happened again. Here's what you gotta do:
Open regedit (Win+R -> write "regedit" -> enter) and navigate to HK_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop open the "ForegroundLockTimeout" key and change its value to 0 (hexadecimal). Reboot the system, use it as you usually do for a few minutes and then check if the dialog issue still happens.
For me, it never happened again. The copy/paste dialog popups up like it should whenever I do any file-moving-copying stuff.
Good luck!