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

Hi all,

I've opened a ticket with Microsoft about this issue and was told that this issue was found and fixed in this month's insider build. From Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23403 | Windows Insider Blog:

• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of File Explorer unexpectedly jumping into the foreground sometimes.

So, this bug was found and fixed way back in March but has not been deployed outside of Insider builds. The good news is that the agent said it is planned to be released in this month's preview build later this month as well as in all December's cumulative patches.

Here's hoping it's true...

I am having this same issue, and thus came here searching for a solution:

Fist my frustration: every time when an windows related issue pops up the only microsoft suggestion is to repair / or reinstall windows.

Reinstalling / upgrading windows doesn't (always) help. Stop suggesting that a clean install or repair is *the* workaround, it is not, it should be a last resort kind of thing, and in this particular case it is not even close for a solution.

For landscapes with VM's and deployments done at push of the button OK, fair, but for home users this is pointless, finding the real origin of the problem is what should be done, instead of painstaking hours of reinstalling and fixing broken repairs.

Ok, back to topic:

I've freshly installed windows 11 (22H2) on multiple machines, and all have this issue.

It all started after updates for explorer having "tabs".

My machines with older windows 11 versions where explorer doesn't have the tabs are (still) working fine...

Somewhere in between these windows / explorer version something happened that created that issue.

So microsoft, be sherlock for once and please find that darmn issue! instead of letting *us* reinstalling windows over and over and over again.

Thank you

Why am I not surprised that the issue wasn't fixed with the latest update?

I'll tell you why

Microsoft is more worried about buying up the competition than keeping its products in line and up to spec

my reaction to the feature update video regarding the "modernized windows file explorer" app is as follows:

Not once did they acknowledge the issues the present file explorer has brought to its users on both windows 10 and 11, across every available version of the OS.

Not once did they address the community outrage and discourse their consumers have towards their products.

I think it's pretty clear they don't care, if it ain't bringing them money or it's taking their focus off of what they consider their "top priorities", or if it isn't an immediate security concern, then it's not worth investigating.

Will Microsoft prove my statement wrong...not likely

Kinda sad really

Folks, this thread is getting a bit frayed. To get us back on track, here's the summation of the previous 26 pages of posts:

• The post about downgrading to Windows 7 is a joke (if it's not, I'll eat my hat...not that I wear one). EDIT: Guess I'll be eating my hat. I thought you were joking. 😳
• The problem is caused by a Group Policy update bug (you can check yourself by opening a CMD windows and typing "gpupdate /force").
• It looks like 23H2 corrects the issue, but won't be released until this fall.

I can verify this as well.

Fresh explorer window, gpupdate /force brings the window to the foreground.

@Microsoft, your users have spent a lot of time and energy sorting this out for you because you have been unresponsive. They didn't ask to be your beta testers, you've forced them into it.

The least you could do is respond with an update or a "thank you."