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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-06-02T21:09:31+00:00

    I have finally sent the feedback: https://aka.ms/AAqookt

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-20T15:45:59+00:00

    If you do report it on their Feedback Hub, can you post a link to it here?

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-04-19T13:53:51+00:00

    Yes, it is frustrating though it is manageable. It is a bearable major nuisance for me at this point.

    Yes, I do use Git in both Visual Studio and Android Studio. As one of my previous comments reported, I disabled all non-Microsoft services and startup apps and still reproduced this issue.

    A reply from the moderator suggests using Feedback Hub to report this. I have not done it. I am glad you shared your experience here. Otherwise, I might report misinformation by suggesting this is limited only to photo browsing.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-04-19T09:07:14+00:00

    Thanks for your reply. Being in dev, I guess it pains you just as much as me to not know how this is being triggered. It's valuable to have more input, as that can help hone down on the why.

    One notable exception to the pattern happened yesterday. I came back to my File Explorer to find all the tabs but one navigated to Desktop: the one I had a .zip file open in. That tab was showing the contents of the archived file, and didn't navigate away to Desktop. Strange.

    Just as a curiosity, do you use git? I've had a sinking feeling that when I do a commit, checkout or other changes that dynamically alter the file system, that's when the bug is triggered. Can't prove this yet.

    Also, is this the best channel to notify MS of a bug? I've been searching out this issue for days and hadn't seen any mention of it until your post.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-04-18T13:24:11+00:00

    Thank you for sharing your experience.

    Your description is exactly what I encounter. I am also a developer, not a photographer. I usually have over a dozen applications open on three monitors, and multiple windows of File Explorer. I noticed File Explorer was often showing Desktop and scratched my head for a while before I realized that I could use the back button to restore the original folders. It was happening in the background and I had no clue. I used photo folders as an example because I happened to notice one day that File Explorer went to Desktop while I was browsing photos.

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