I am having this as well, it popped up out of nothing. I had done a reinstall about a month or so, but this is 2 days old. I haven't added any hardware and it's not predictable or readily reproducible.
Windows 11--most recently opened Explorer window keeps popping up into the foreground
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Anonymous
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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Anonymous
2023-03-31T11:14:42+00:00 -
Anonymous
2023-03-31T09:58:36+00:00 tried a new (disk) windows 11 install - still no better.
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Anonymous
2023-03-31T07:37:06+00:00 Unfortunately, the only workaround I'm aware of is to shut down all instances of Windows Explorer as soon as possible. If you use Windows 11 for professional work, keeping Explorer windows closed is a serious productivity hit, but so is this Explorer pop-up issue.
I and others have been reporting this issue for over three months now, yet no word from Microsoft acknowledging the issue, much less offering a fix.
One of my workarounds when I have to use multiple explorer windows is to keep them on they're own monitor so they just does not pop up over any other software and break my concentration. The only thing i notice then is that focus is lost on the program i was currently using instead of an black box going over everything randomly.
But i keep the explorer windows closed otherwise.
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Anonymous
2023-03-31T07:21:25+00:00 when it begins by stating that many users are having the same problem then goes on to suggest fixes like loose/faulty video leads etc. - can't believe so many users have loose/faulty leads :) I've been running Win 10 on this PC for 6 months without issue - upgraded to Win 11 and it starts with the explorer and black screen problems - install fresh win 11 on new SSD and the problem is still there - clearly this is a Windows 11 'feature' not my PC - I can live with it for now but hopefully MS fixes it ...
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Anonymous
2023-03-30T20:37:07+00:00 I've been getting this explorer annoyance on my home Win 11 PC and wonder if there might also be a link to another problem I have of the screen going black for a few seconds at a random time after booting - like its decided to reinstall the video driver. I was waiting for MS to hopefully fix this sometime soon but my work PC has just done the explorer thing too ...
On the black screen front check if your screen supports Radeon freesync. Turning it on fixed that for me.