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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

575 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-08-12T01:09:31+00:00

    Jennifer G (MS Engineer) - could you please talk to the boss ----- and get the Microsoft Manager, CEO etc to write something here?

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-11T16:58:26+00:00

    Diplocaulus

    I've seen the response and posed a link here and had thought to repost it.

    Thanks for posting the response from MS--at least gives us some hope this will be resolved, if not in a timely manner (I think we're past that now!), at least at some point.

    I know this is off-thread, but curious about your Outlook issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-11T16:38:43+00:00

    ...I take some heart from the fact that the Feedback collection has received an official response that suggests it will be fixed this year. It just sucks that every patch night rolls past without any change.

    Image

    I've been experiencing standing issues with Outlook for over two years. Occasionally when I'm feeling like a glutton for punishment I'll contact Microsoft support and let them drive and have a look at it again. Microsoft's answer is always the same: Yes, this is a known Outlook issue, and it will be fixed "soon."

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-08-11T16:34:13+00:00

    It almost makes one wonder if Microsoft engineers are themselves using... Microsoft Windows... :(

    I know a few professional coders and while their employers use Windows, they are otherwise Apple all the way.

    I suspect Microsoft OS engineers are working with pre-releases of Windows where the issue has already been fixed.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-08-11T10:05:32+00:00

    The only way to solve this bug is someone pushing the media to make a news about this anoying bug that has 1 year and nobody from Microsoft is taking care about this issue.

    You make a good point. Do we have any reliable statistics we can draw on for how disruptive this is? From my perspective, it occurs a few times a day. The frustration I feel when it happens has probably shaved several months off my lifespan by now in raised blood pressure. But the amount of potential life lost is not easily measurable.

    There have been studies into disruption to flow, some of which were linked to earlier in this chain, I'm sure. It would be a harder-hitting article with some cold facts about how much this is costing in wasted international business hours and healthcare.

    At the time of writing, this item has 273 upvotes and the related Feedback collection (https://aka.ms/AAjevpi) has 320 votes. It is currently in the top 10 highest rated issues in the category of "Files, Folders, and Online Storage". I would argue that some of the others in that top 10 list are not issues (two of them are about adding a pause button to OneDrive and two relate to improving Quick Access).

    However, we have no real way of knowing how many people are affected by this issue. I am surprised more people haven't voted here. But I suppose many users might be loading apps via the Start menu, Task Bar or Desktop without much use of File Explorer itself.

    I take some heart from the fact that the Feedback collection has received an official response that suggests it will be fixed this year. It just sucks that every patch night rolls past without any change.

    Image

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments