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
    2023-07-10T14:15:07+00:00

    This may be just a new manifestation of the same issue, but lately I've noticed opened Explorer windows frequently flashing, which is usually a sign that one is trying to find its way into the foreground.

    Also, it's now not unusual that while I'm in one opened Explorer window renaming a file, another opened Explorer window will start flashing and suddenly take its place, negating the file renaming in the previous Explorer window.

    Problem appears to be only getting worse. :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-07T14:25:33+00:00

    The developers probably run pre-Beta Win12 which (hopefully) has this fixed, so they don't think about it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-07T13:43:02+00:00

    Unfortunately, these steps didn't fix the problem for me :-(

    Nothing I've tried short of closing all Explorer windows stops this problem.

    Unfortunately for me, my work involves managing multiple files across multiple directories and multiple computers on a local network, so I typically have a half-dozen or more Explorer windows opened simultaneously. Maybe Microsoft engineers don't work this way, so it's not an issue for them? That would explain why they're in no hurry to fix it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-07T12:20:06+00:00

    Unfortunately, these steps didn't fix the problem for me :-(

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