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
    2023-05-02T07:25:22+00:00

    am I the only one with the black screen problem - usually happens once a day - yesterday it happened about half a dozen times - its more annoying than the 'explorer' problem (and I still think its related as it began about the same time - following a Win 11 update)

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-02T07:34:57+00:00

    am I the only one with the black screen problem - usually happens once a day - yesterday it happened about half a dozen times - its more annoying than the 'explorer' problem (and I still think its related as it began about the same time - following a Win 11 update)

    A black screen could be graphics card hardware, monitor, cabling or a variety of software issues, including drivers. I doubt it is in any way related to this specific issue with the explorer.

    Let's keep this issue focussed on the 'explorer' issue, please. If you are having other issues with Windows 11, I recommend you find that issue in Feedback Hub and/or on this site and add to it there, or put the details into your own post.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-02T19:57:45+00:00

    Still catching up (I'm on page 7 of 14), but it just happened to me and I immediately went to event viewer and in the System log, at almost the exact time it occurred, I have the following Informational entry:

    System Log: Event ID 1501, Source: GroupPolicy (Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy)

    "The Group Policy settings for the user were processed successfully. There were no changes detected since the last successful processing of Group Policy."

    Now... this likely means nothing to/for home users or those without group policy, however, I believe even consumer versions of Windows have a "local" group policy, which... may coincide?

    Also, notably, the whole screen refreshed when explorer foreground-ed itself. I even noticed desktop icons reloading/refreshing.

    Shot in the dark, thanks for reading.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-04T15:17:40+00:00

    Just happened again with identical timing, this time with GPO for computer...

    Screen refreshes, desktop icons re-draw, backgrounded Explorer window becomes foreground and captures focus regardless of what I'm doing.

    System Log: Event ID 1500, Source: GroupPolicy (Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy)

    "The Group Policy settings for the computer were processed successfully. There were no changes detected since the last successful processing of Group Policy."

    2 for 2 now, I'll keep an eye on it.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-04T15:27:53+00:00

    For what it's worth, there's a fix on the Windows Insider Canary channel, but I recommend staying on the Release channel. I have no idea why Microsoft has not yet rolled it out to the Release Channel. I've expressed my frustration in some comments within the Feedback Hub collection item.

    Feedback Hub - Collection announcing the fix - 3/2023 (2 months ago): https://aka.ms/AAjglx2

    Feedback Hub - My original report - 10/2022 (7 months ago): https://aka.ms/AAi70bz

    Fun times! Patience will prevail.

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