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

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.

Maybe if you're not typing, File Explorer briefly grabs focus and relinquishes it – there was something about that being a "fix" in one of the threads about this bug – but if you're actually typing and hit a key as Explorer grabs attention, Windows thinks you've deliberately given it focus so it remains?

This is obviously some strange new definition of the word "fix" I was previously unaware of.

If the bug was introduced when Explorer was given tabs, perhaps it has something to do with how the contents of a tabbed window are kept up to date? Even though I've never used the tab feature. But surely the correct fix is to allow the window to do operations in the background without grabbing focus!

Microsoft has failed for a year now to fix this issue in one of their OS's fundamental features - the file explorer.

The issue is both a concern for productivity, because it steals focus from the user, and a concern for privacy because the file explorer window could contain filenames or other information not intended for sharing.

We have had users with examples of data nearly being lost due to typing at the point the explorer window steals focus.

And it is clear from StephenBaggs' update, and others who have taken 23H2, that the issue remains in the latest version of Windows.

I am appalled.

I saw a slight change in this behaviour this morning. I don't know whether it's a one-off, or a result of an update (I'm on Win11Pro, 23H2).

While using Excel with a File Explorer window minimised, the Excel window unexpectedly vanished and the File Explorer window opened instead. After about a second, the File Explorer minimsed again and Excel reappeared. I am confident that this was not a result of anything I did - I was reading something at the time and not using the keyboard or mouse.

And - having said all that - File Explorer has just grabbed focus yet again, in the middle of me typing this post, and it did not minimise itself afterwards. So maybe this morning's episode with Excel was just a one-off.

And mine

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core, 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor

MSI Gaming MAX 450

Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1Tb

Crucial SSD 2.5" - 2Tb

IRDM Pro 128Gb DDR 4 - 3600mhz

MSI Nvidia RTX 4070ti

I too am having this issue :-(