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
    2023-05-23T07:13:00+00:00

    When the issue occurs, it's all my Explorer windows at once, not just one.

    That's what happens with mine too. Earlier, most of us just report the window pop-up. That's because at first, we might just have 1 window open to begin with. But after a while, we will certainly see that however many explorer windows are in the background, they can/will all pop-up at once to the foreground.

    After what i have seen, it has something to do with group policies. I have checked event viewer multiple times the moment the popup happens and i have always seen something with group policies be the newest events in event viewer. The worst part is, a computer checks for policy updates multiple times a day, even when the computer is not even connected to an AD server!

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-23T07:54:29+00:00

    After what i have seen, it has something to do with group policies. I have checked event viewer multiple times the moment the popup happens and i have always seen something with group policies be the newest events in event viewer. The worst part is, a computer checks for policy updates multiple times a day, even when the computer is not even connected to an AD server!

    Nice information! If that has something to do with group policies, then I wonder if Microsoft or somebody can provide directions about what we can do to group polices to stop the pop-up behaviour once and for all. Thanks for posting about that.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-23T08:23:30+00:00

    You can force the process in a CMD with "gpupdate /force".
    GPO will be triggered any 90 minutes.

    So, if the GPO is the issue, this should also happen if you force them.

    I can not confirm, that this issue is in touch with the GPO sync, since I do have this once a day or less, while others do have this more often, but none of them once with any GPO run...

    The only thing I could mention, that is similar to anybody in my env is, that anybody has Trellix (McAfee) products installed and that anybody runs Microsoft Teams.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-23T08:32:35+00:00

    You can force the process in a CMD with "gpupdate /force".
    GPO will be triggered any 90 minutes.

    So, if the GPO is the issue, this should also happen if you force them.

    I can not confirm, that this issue is in touch with the GPO sync, since I do have this once a day or less, while others do have this more often, but none of them once with any GPO run...

    Okay, this issue is now reproducible via the following steps:

    1. EDIT: First, ensure there are no Explorer windows open.
    2. Open Explorer - leave it open and do not minimise it.
    3. Open a CMD/Terminal window.
    4. Type the following and press return: gpupdate /force

    Expected: Group Policy updates and nothing else happens.

    Actual: The terminal read-out shows "Updating policy..." and then the Explorer window pops over the top of the terminal window.

    As such, I agree this seems to relate to GP updates.

    Well spotted!

    The only thing I could mention, that is similar to anybody in my env is, that anybody has Trellix (McAfee) products installed and that anybody runs Microsoft Teams.

    I am running MS Teams at work, but not on my Home PC (seen the issue on both). No McAfee.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-23T08:35:21+00:00

    You can force the process in a CMD with "gpupdate /force".
    GPO will be triggered any 90 minutes.

    So, if the GPO is the issue, this should also happen if you force them.

    Thanks for suggesting that Michael! I just tried that, after using the 'make-me-admin' on our system here. No pop-ups. But was definitely worth a try.

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