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
    2023-04-11T10:54:55+00:00

    I figured a numbered head count will allow them to see that more people have this issue.

    It's happened to me since January. My laptop is on 18 hours per day and it'll sometimes not happen at all, and other times happen 2-3 times per day. File explorer is the first program i open and it's left behind my other windows most of the time. It doesnt seem to happen if ive manually clicked the "minimize" button on the window. (Although clicking the icon on the task bar to "minimize" it when it is an active window, still seems to have it randomly popup).

    Looking forward to the fix, as at the moment, it's become something I've had to learn to live with.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-28T18:42:48+00:00

    Still the same **** here in Windows 11 Pro 22H2 Build 22621.1413 clean installation!

    It slowly gets very annoying!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-28T12:09:58+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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T16:10:21+00:00

    No upgrade. Win 11 Home clean install and I also experience this issue.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T15:51:04+00:00

    That's a great tip, but needless to say I'm very reluctant to pay Microsoft $100 USD to fix a problem that they should fix without additional cost.

    Flashback: I experienced issues with Windows Home some 20 years ago, and upgrading to Pro fixed them. I hate that.

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