File Explorer keeps going to Desktop

Anonymous
2024-03-25T17:19:20+00:00

When I browse and view files, File Explorer keeps going to Desktop by itself. It is easy to correct this by simply clicking the back button (<-). I would not mind if this happens once in a while, but it happens almost constantly, so it is a major nuisance.

For example, suppose that I am looking at pictures in folder E:\Pictures\2024\Events\foo, open a picture with Photos, and use it to navigate to different photos, then File Explorer will suddenly jump to Desktop. This is almost 100% reproducible. I will have to click the back button to get back to E:\Pictures\2024\Events\foo.

Could anyone offer a remedy for this?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-02-15T14:52:54+00:00

    It seems like if you turn off "Show all folders" in the Windows Explorer options, then this problem goes away. I've been tormented with this for a while. I have shortcuts on my desktop to specific folders and when I double click them, instead of going to the folder, it goes to desktop. I click back and I'm at the folder. This is annoying and isn't how shortcuts are supposed to work. Turning off "Show all folders" seems to have fixed it. What a joke that Microsoft can't get their act together. They are so worried about making everything cloud-based and finding a way to get people to subscribe to M365 and OneDrive that they have completely broken a once useful tool.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-12-05T22:12:57+00:00

    I have just updated Windows 11 to 24H2 and confirmed the issue remains as expected. It increasingly looks like a permanent bug.

    I could install OneCommander from the Microsoft Store after the update and rebooting. It looks great. Thank you again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-12-05T00:01:22+00:00

    I got my download from their website.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-12-04T23:02:47+00:00

    Well said, John. Thank you for the tip on One Commander. I am trying to install OneCommander from Microsoft Store but it has got stuck at 'Checking system requirements..."

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-12-04T22:31:37+00:00

    Crazy isn't it.

    It was driving me nuts so much so that I have switched to a third party file explorer called One Commander.

    Pros

    It's stable and works as expected.

    Cons

    It doesn't fully replace File Explorer in all apps save dialogs.

    But its downsides are more than made up for with the customisation you can do with the layout.

    Hope this helps. I'm not expecting a fix from Microsoft since they don't even seem to acknowledge that users are experiencing this bug. A buggy File Explorer is completely out of character for Windows and Microsoft. It's such a core component of a productive operating system. I expect better.

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