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.

0 comments No comments

575 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-16T14:40:27+00:00

    Hi,

    This bug is more than 1 year old.

    It will never be fixed anymore.

    Consider this as a new Windows feature.

    The purpose of this feature is:

    If you have a Windows Explorer window open, it is because you need to do something in that folder, so it pops up to the foreground to remind you.

    It's the AI 😂

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-16T14:08:24+00:00

    I recently discussed this with some folks on another forum dedicated Microsoft tech support. I don't know what their relationship is with Microsoft, but they were aggressively defensive of Microsoft to the point of incivility, insisting that despite so many users reporting this issue here on the Microsoft Community Forum, this problem was yet just a "bug" affecting a tiny percentage of Windows 11 users; they themselves claimed to be unaware of it. As one respondent put it, they hadn't experienced the issue, nor had any of their "friends."

    When I suggested that this was more than a bug, that so far as I was concerned, Windows 11 was broken, they went full ad hominem using words like "ranting" and "idiot" to characterize me. Again, I do not know whether any of these people have any professional connection to Microsoft, but they sure as heck didn't want want to hear criticism of Microsoft or Windows 11.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-13T11:59:03+00:00

    Did anyone ask for file explorer tabs? I am fairly sure this was only added because of Microsoft's insane decision to remove ungrouped taskbar entries. Now, all 15 of my open file explorer windows show as this:

    A stupid waste of space. For what? To make Windows work more like MacOS?

    But it's fine, because I can have 15 tabs in that one file explorer window, so I only need one entry in the taskbar, right? Wrong! Because file explorer tabs don't work properly, and there's no option to automatically add a new window to the tab set, so you end up using multiple windows even when trying to use it the way it's been designed now.

    The end result of this poor implementation of tabbing is:

    • More clicks or time spent finding the right window when working on multiple file explorer windows.
    • Frustrating bugs - like this focus-capture bug that kills productivity - whilst Microsoft brings this feature in, treating us all as guineapigs in their early access program.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T16:53:23+00:00

    Software is hard, and all the good people have left. We're in a bit of a dark age here.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-03T21:29:20+00:00

    I'm at an absolute total loss about why nobody there has managed to fix this after getting up towards one year (or more). That is ultra surprising. Very odd situation.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments