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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
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.
still convinced there's a connection with the Explorer Window thing and my 3 second blackout thing (latest vid driver installed this week and its still doing it :( ) noticed also this week - Win 11 PC goes to sleep but occasionally for no apparent reason it wakes up - gpupdate I wonder?
I recommend checking event viewer when this issue happens to find the cause. The screen going black is most likely not related to this specific issue.
Run winver to check your current windows version. AFAIK, Win11 home do still have this issue, but happens less and not on demand for them.
Win11 pro systems does have this issue and it is repeatable 100% of the time by opening a new windows explorer window, put something in front of the explorer window and then running the command gpupdate /force.
To troubleshoot your issue, i do recommend noting down the current date and time whenever something weird happens. The more precise your note is, the easier it is to troubleshoot.
After you have the time noted down, open event viewer and filter all events by 30 min before noted time to the noted time. Also recommended to save the logs so you can easily check them again at a later date or have the ability to let other people look at it.
Most of the time you can find the issue by setting the filter to only errors, sometimes warnings can have information about this issue too. In some rare cases, informational do also contain information that let you solve it too. So check all errors first, then warnings, then informational.
If you ever wonder what an error code means or how to do stuff, you could always google the answer or just ask ChatGPT or Bing Chat for help or call a friend.
that is happened to me as well. I'm editing a file - deleting characters and file explorer pops up and I end up deleting files. Rubbish!!!!!
Both today and yesterday I worked on a few Excel files and no longer have this problem (I used to on this machine, it went away a couple weeks ago .. and it went away NOT after a Microsoft update ... no clue why).
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on 7/22/2023
OS build 22621.2134
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22659.1000.0
Device name Dell-2023-AIO
Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1355U 1.70 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
Device ID 131CE122-0106-42F5-BD91-40E457B32AD0
Product ID 00342-22176-95797-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Touch support with 10 touch points
== I jumped over to my other Win 11 machine, used Excel and Microsoft Word for about 10-minutes, kept the Win Explorer window open in the background and it never popped up, here is that machine:
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on 10/01/22
OS build 22621.2134
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22659.1000.0
Device name Dell-2021-all-in-one
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.6 GB usable)
Device ID 50F858A8-1BCB-4D98-8E5A-39A547072391
Product ID 00325-96772-67585-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Touch support with 10 touch points
I have had that machine for a while and would have the Win Expl. issue constantly until recently.,
update:
argh.... that 2022 machine just did it. PROBLEM STILL EXISTS
===
I went back to my 2023 machine, used Excel for about 15-minutes with Win Expl. window open in the background, no issue.
summary: no clue ... both have the same Windows definition and OS build, both have Bitdefender running (both updated today and had both machines rebooted this morning). Both machines are similar (Intel i7 but different generations), both have the same DRAM (but the 2023 does have a dedicated graphic card) .... but that would not explain why the 2023 DID have the Win. Explor. issue until recently, so I would not suspect the hardware unless there was a security update to hardware.
Trying to execute complicated CGI, Photoshop or video editing procedures when a File Explorer window suddenly pulls focus can be disastrous; happens to me several times a day, every day. Maybe Microsoft engineered Windows 11 to be the Annoying Anti-Productivity OS, for reasons unknown.
