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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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-13T10:57:30+00:00

    Thanks - I'll have a look at NVIDIA G-Sync later see if that improves things.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-02T18:00:27+00:00

    I asked Bing AI: "When will Microsoft fix the file Explorer pop-up bug in Windows 11?"

    Bing's reply:

    Microsoft is aware of some issues with File Explorer in Windows 11 and is working on a fix^4^. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions."

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-31T11:14:42+00:00

    I am having this as well, it popped up out of nothing. I had done a reinstall about a month or so, but this is 2 days old. I haven't added any hardware and it's not predictable or readily reproducible.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-31T07:37:06+00:00

    Unfortunately, the only workaround I'm aware of is to shut down all instances of Windows Explorer as soon as possible. If you use Windows 11 for professional work, keeping Explorer windows closed is a serious productivity hit, but so is this Explorer pop-up issue.

    I and others have been reporting this issue for over three months now, yet no word from Microsoft acknowledging the issue, much less offering a fix.

    One of my workarounds when I have to use multiple explorer windows is to keep them on they're own monitor so they just does not pop up over any other software and break my concentration. The only thing i notice then is that focus is lost on the program i was currently using instead of an black box going over everything randomly.

    But i keep the explorer windows closed otherwise.

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