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
    2023-03-22T16:42:11+00:00

    I also have this on a preinstalled and licensed vanilla Win 11 machine, as well as one upgraded from Windows 10 Pro I would go along with the issue being related to the 22H2 update. Bizarre that this workaround fixed it. Useful to know as it might help the dev. team.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T16:20:50+00:00

    We have the problem with a Windows 11 Pro 22H2 upgraded from Windows 11 Pro 21H2 - so no Windows 10 was installed on this machine

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T16:19:44+00:00

    I installed a new Windows 11Pro with a Key. My original system was an upgraded Windows 11 Pro from an existing Windows 10 Pro

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T16:13:06+00:00

    I have Win11Pro and am, like so many others, experiencing this issue.

    The question is: Did you upgrade to Win11Pro from Win10Pro, or did you install it fresh? The suggestion from @Steve Singletary is that there's a difference between the upgrade and the clean install.

    Interesting. For what it's worth, when I built my current PC it was with a clean install of Windows 11 Home (it was free then).

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T16:11:26+00:00

    All I can say is it worked for me. It is a little time-consuming but worth it to me.

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