Explorer.exe randomly taking focus - Windows 11

Anonymous
2023-02-08T00:52:23+00:00

Firstly, I've been using my same PC for 3 years (minus a few upgrades, graphics card etc) on windows 10 and never ever had this issue.

Recently I had the pop up saying I'm eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 - Cool, why not.

So I've been using windows 11 for a couple of weeks now and I'm enjoying it... apart from one VERY annoying issue I'm having.

When playing a fullscreen application (or borderless window, it doesnt matter) It will randomly minimize itself to start bar, the same kind of action If I were to Alt-Tab out of it.

This isn't an issue with any one program, it can happen in any game I'm playing, or even just fullscreen applications I leave running, such as Heaven benchmark or other benchmarking programs.

Its not an accidental press of windows key or anything daft like that, It even happens when gaming with a PS5 controller, hands nowhere near the desk.

This can happen within a minute or 2 of playing a game, or sometimes go as long as 20 minutes without happening, but it WILL happen and will repeat itself periodically.

I figured somehow another window is taking focus out of my game and tabbing to it, but no other window or notification etc actually pops up, I'm just left staring at my desktop.

I managed to find a program online someone created which logs which windows are in focus in order, so using this program I was able to determine that when im gaming and this happens, the window taking focus is 'Explorer.exe'. which is suspiciously the same thing that is in focus if I just click on my background on my desktop from another program. Its essentially like my PC is just tabbing itself to desktop for no reason.

As mentioned above, ive not had this issue ever in 3 years with windows 10 and its only started happening when upgrading to windows 11 so clearly something new or different is causing this.

Things ive already tried... Disabling notifications, Turning on/off 'Game Mode'. Changing power plans. Disabling 'minimize when a second monitor is plugged in or removed.

None of these have solved this. At this point im thinking of just reverting back to windows 10 for now.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-08-12T07:18:56+00:00

    This erros still persists after months - newest Windows 11 version is installed, and it's very annoying.

    It happens if a file in an open Windows Explorer window is created or modified.

    Here's some scenarios where it can occur, so it can be reproduced.

    Starting a program using it's executable (or a batch file, does not really matter), if this program creates a log file in the same directory.

    Opening a document by double clicking it in Windows Explorer where the assigned program creates a lock file in the same directory.

    Just on a sidenode: The focus bug mentioned above happens also when the new API to create context menu entries was used, but the classic menu was displayed (show more options) and used to launch that command. Then the program will start in the background. Also most of the time GOG installers open in the background, not so on Windows 10.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-02T16:31:32+00:00

    Hello,

    I can confirm this is a known issue, we are developers of a game launcher, and the explorer is stealing the focus for many of our users, which is a huge issue when people are using their computer solely for gaming with a gamepad as only controlling device !

    What also happens in windows 11 and not in windows 10, is that an application launched via command line does not always get the focus, and sometimes opens behind the explorer windows ==> which is a real pity.

    Please fix this issue soon, as more and more of our users are reverting back to windows 10, and we recommend them to !

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-31T11:43:04+00:00

    I'm wondering if it will be fixed before the 23H2 release or until Windows 12. At this pace, I have some doubts they care about it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-30T03:10:39+00:00

    So, Microsoft, 6 months have gone by now with this being a known issue, possibly 7 months, as I have seen reports of the issue going back as far as January 2023. As stated by commenters in this thread and numerous others all over the internet, many people have tried many things and nothing, absolutely NOTHING resolves the issue except to never leave file explorer windows open in the first place. That's a hard, impractical habit to form and remember 100% of the time. So my question is, why the heck hasn't this been fixed? I understand that issues like this can be difficult to reproduce and may have more than one cause, but how hard is it to add some sort of extra debugging logger to explorer to find and fix this garbage? SIX MONTHS is LONG ENOUGH to fix a FREAKY, INFURIATING, and PRIVACY SABOTAGING bug. I have literally seen clips of this bug happening on live streams, which is embarrassing at the very least, but has potential to be much worse, as it could easily EXPOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION. FIX THIS BUG NOW!!!

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-07-18T13:26:02+00:00

    I have the same issue.

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