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
    2023-12-18T14:07:12+00:00

    You're wrong. I'm not in the Preview channel and I got the KB5032288 update.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-19T10:06:32+00:00

    This initially fixed it for me. Though it's been returning since last week.
    Not continuously, but intermittently.

    I've noticed the KB5032288 update has been replaced by the KB5033375 when i look it up in the catalog.
    Any further advice?

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-19T16:00:57+00:00

    I think this is fixed, at least for me in the build of Win11 that I'm using (Beta/Insider 23H2 Build 22635.3209). I haven't seen it happen in quite awhile, whereas before it was an every-day-at-the-exact-same-time occurrence for months.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-04T16:42:48+00:00

    I think I have the same problem, but perhaps another.

    My PC is a new built Win11, about 6 weeks old, and I think it started doing this recently. I had some hardware conflicts that make an accurate determination difficult.
    I also get cases where what looks like a cmd window appears and flashes by, sometimes when I am typing, so I end up missing a few letters. Aah! It just did that a few seconds ago.
    It also sometimes just switches windows, as in, I might be typing this and suddenly I am in Outlook.

    Microsoft is a bit like democracy, massively flawed, but the best choice I have.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-09-21T17:34:42+00:00

    I have this issue with Explorer.exe tabbing me out from Windows on both my computers, i have diffrent OS installed on the two PC's one on Win 11 Pro and one on Win 10 home.

    What is this??? I would love to enjoy playing games in fullscreen and watch movies but this is really frustrating and in my opinion the Windows managing team does not think this is a big problem to fix? Is that true, it's been TWO years! of people telling you that this is a major problem and people build PC's for 4000-5000 dollars to enjoy playing games or other fullscreen related things to get shot down by Windows itself.

    It's not acceptable.

    So what do you do?

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