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

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
    2023-05-12T13:31:26+00:00

    Windows 11 installed an update last night. Did it fix the problem? Nope.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-09T14:16:30+00:00

    I've recently noticed that occasionally two Explorer windows will simultaneously pop into the fore, not just one. Does this mean the problem is getting worse, not better?

    Microsoft: Are you paying attention?

    Happened to me today.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-09T13:28:35+00:00

    I've recently noticed that occasionally two Explorer windows will simultaneously pop into the fore, not just one. Does this mean the problem is getting worse, not better?

    Microsoft: Are you paying attention?

    I noticed something similar last week - a second Explorer window I had open popped in front of the Explorer window I was using. Fortunately, I was not in the process of deleting anything at the time.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-04T15:17:40+00:00

    Just happened again with identical timing, this time with GPO for computer...

    Screen refreshes, desktop icons re-draw, backgrounded Explorer window becomes foreground and captures focus regardless of what I'm doing.

    System Log: Event ID 1500, Source: GroupPolicy (Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy)

    "The Group Policy settings for the computer were processed successfully. There were no changes detected since the last successful processing of Group Policy."

    2 for 2 now, I'll keep an eye on it.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-29T13:58:37+00:00

    Thanks for the info. I was beginning to think that Microsoft didn't care about its home users, but apparently they don't have much regard for their enterprise users as well. This is surprising. I would like to think that Microsoft will eventually fix this, but based upon my own past experience with other Microsoft issues, I wouldn't hold my breath.

    For example, searches have not worked properly in Outlook for over two years. About twice a year I contact Microsoft support and let them have remote access to my PC to see if they can fix it. Unfortunately, the result is always the same: support concludes that mine is a "known" issue and tells me it will be fixed "soon." Needless to say, the takeaway is that "soon"--in Microsoft speak--is a euphemism for never.

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