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
    2023-09-05T13:41:53+00:00

    I did come up with one observation. With only ONE explorer window open, my system went for over 30 hours without stealing focus. As soon as I foolishly allowed TWO explorer windows to be open, whamo, the problem reappeared.

    Glad that's working for you. In my case, the problem persists whether it's just one open File Explorer window or several.

    Side note, if I have several open File Explorers and I'm editing file names in one, it's not unusual for another File Explorer to suddenly take it's place.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-05T02:14:52+00:00

    I did come up with one observation. With only ONE explorer window open, my system went for over 30 hours without stealing focus. As soon as I foolishly allowed TWO explorer windows to be open, whamo, the problem reappeared.

    Normally - just one background explorer window is enough, as the gpupdate process will make even 1 background window come out the front.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-05T01:00:44+00:00

    I did come up with one observation. With only ONE explorer window open, my system went for over 30 hours without stealing focus. As soon as I foolishly allowed TWO explorer windows to be open, whamo, the problem reappeared.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-02T10:57:44+00:00

    I have 2 different PC also having the same issue. The file explorer will open randomly when I using another app. It happens intermittently.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-09-01T19:15:12+00:00

    Yeah I have the same issue with Win 11 Pro. Annoying as heck

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