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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  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-03T22:01:07+00:00

    Dang. I'll try to put some more pressure on Microsoft, via the ancient Feedback Hub item here (might not be accessible to non-Insiders) https://aka.ms/AAjglx2

    ... But I don't know how to make them listen.

    Edit: I posted this on X, to try to help:

    https://x.com/Jacob_W_Klein/status/1720563467155816693?s=20

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-06T14:47:58+00:00

    I don't have an X account, but for the past months I have been posting links to this thread to Microsoft on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit, for all the good that's done, which is apparently none.

    Regarding Microsoft on Facebook, I see that when other people post technical issues a Microsoft rep jumps right in eager to help, but not when it comes to this issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T10:51:44+00:00

    I am having this same issue, and thus came here searching for a solution:

    Fist my frustration: every time when an windows related issue pops up the only microsoft suggestion is to repair / or reinstall windows.

    Reinstalling / upgrading windows doesn't (always) help. Stop suggesting that a clean install or repair is *the* workaround, it is not, it should be a last resort kind of thing, and in this particular case it is not even close for a solution.

    For landscapes with VM's and deployments done at push of the button OK, fair, but for home users this is pointless, finding the real origin of the problem is what should be done, instead of painstaking hours of reinstalling and fixing broken repairs.

    Ok, back to topic:

    I've freshly installed windows 11 (22H2) on multiple machines, and all have this issue.

    It all started after updates for explorer having "tabs".

    My machines with older windows 11 versions where explorer doesn't have the tabs are (still) working fine...

    Somewhere in between these windows / explorer version something happened that created that issue.

    So microsoft, be sherlock for once and please find that darmn issue! instead of letting *us* reinstalling windows over and over and over again.

    Thank you

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T12:44:56+00:00

    This!

    Sick to death of going to Windows "Support", spending hours detailing my install and the issue only for them THEN to look at their issues database and say 'ongoing issue, no direct resolution - have you tried reinstalling Windows?'

    Wow, great support there.

    Your software is not free. I can think of no other consumer product or service where if it didn't work there would be zero recourse to the customer / end user.

    Do better, Microsoft.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-08T16:53:23+00:00

    Software is hard, and all the good people have left. We're in a bit of a dark age here.

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