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.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-11T10:54:55+00:00

    I figured a numbered head count will allow them to see that more people have this issue.

    It's happened to me since January. My laptop is on 18 hours per day and it'll sometimes not happen at all, and other times happen 2-3 times per day. File explorer is the first program i open and it's left behind my other windows most of the time. It doesnt seem to happen if ive manually clicked the "minimize" button on the window. (Although clicking the icon on the task bar to "minimize" it when it is an active window, still seems to have it randomly popup).

    Looking forward to the fix, as at the moment, it's become something I've had to learn to live with.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T14:12:39+00:00

    Another week later and still no fix. Glad to hear Microsoft is at least paying lip-service to this serious issue, nevertheless it's off-putting to hear them tout their new Bing AI when they can't get their latest operating system--released 18 months ago--working correctly.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-04-02T18:51:11+00:00

    Thanks for posting, Diplocaulus. Also, take a look at my post on 3/28,above, which is an official response from MS.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-02T18:00:27+00:00

    I asked Bing AI: "When will Microsoft fix the file Explorer pop-up bug in Windows 11?"

    Bing's reply:

    Microsoft is aware of some issues with File Explorer in Windows 11 and is working on a fix^4^. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions."

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