Windows 11--most recently opened Explorer window keeps popping up into the foreground

Anonymous
2023-01-01T17:15:47+00:00

About a month ago Windows Explorer started the annoying habit of routinely moving its most recently opened window into the foreground. Is there a way to stop it from doing this?

For example, I'll open an Explorer window to open a file into another application, and a few minutes later, for no apparent reason, Windows Explorer will interrupt the application by popping its Explorer window into the foreground. The same thing will happen when watching a video: a minute or two into watching the video and the most recently opened Explorer window will move into the foreground interrupting the video.

The only way to stop this behavior is to close all Explorer windows while watching a video or working in another application. Annoying as heck. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Microsoft Windows 11 Home Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-28T06:48:01+00:00

    Same here. My W11 installation was a clean installation, never did an OS upgrade. Yet a Windows Explorer window is moved ontop of all others multiple times a day! This is getting really annoying.

    When will Microsoft realease a fix for this?

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-27T18:52:16+00:00

    I have a number of users who have complained about this same issue in Windows 11. It has messed up data entry for users who think they are entering data to find out the File Explorer window popped over what they were doing. Is Microsoft going to pay for lost productivity and scrapped product?

    This issue has been present ever since rolling out Windows 11 to hundreds of users this year. Latest Windows/Lenovo updates had no effect.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T19:51:37+00:00

    That's my experience too. Explorer will be in the background and pop to the foreground. I've noticed it most watching video files using VLC (where the file is launched via explorer) as it is most intrusive. This happens with no interaction with the machine.

    My feeling is that it is being triggered 'under the hood' forcing it into the foreground when it's open.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T16:34:49+00:00

    For me, it seems random. I haven't been able to detect any particular activities or behaviors that seem to exclusively cause this issue, or be associated with this issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T15:39:17+00:00

    I have enabled rotating images on my desktop to try this and I also don't see any correlation.

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