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
    2023-04-25T10:17:16+00:00

    2 things

    1. I hide the taskbar, when the explorer is brought forward, the taskbar slides up, then down again. If i have no explorer windows, the taskbar STILL randomly slides up, and down again. I know the taskbar is related to explorer.exe so maybe that’s why.
    2. The issue only seems to happen when I’m at my desk, (where i use multi monitor); NOT when my pc is outputting over hdmi to my tv.

    Interesting... So there is something with explorer.exe then. I also have multi monitor everywhere, except for my virtual machines. They do not have any graphics card connected at all.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-25T10:03:35+00:00

    2 things

    1. I hide the taskbar, when the explorer is brought forward, the taskbar slides up, then down again. If i have no explorer windows, the taskbar STILL randomly slides up, and down again. I know the taskbar is related to explorer.exe so maybe that’s why.
    2. The issue only seems to happen when I’m at my desk, (where i use multi monitor); NOT when my pc is outputting over hdmi to my tv.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-25T07:20:15+00:00

    This issue has completely taken over our entire organization. If the file explorer window is left open in the background, it'll just randomly seize control and pup up on top of whatever you are working on. It is MASSIVELY frustrating and has caused us to accidentally delete things. PLEASE FIX THIS!

    I have accidentally deleted things, moved stuff to somewhere i can't find again, opened the file in my browser and ran the item it self multiple times.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-04-25T07:17:11+00:00

    (not sure how to do this in Win10)

    To be fair, I think it's a Win11-only issue 😁

    It is only win11 issue, i have multiple win10 VM's that never had this issue while the win11 VM's have the exact same issue as normal win11 computers. Frequency and everything.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-25T07:10:05+00:00

    (not sure how to do this in Win10)

    To be fair, I think it's a Win11-only issue 😁

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