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
    2023-07-26T17:19:30+00:00

    My comment is probably misplaced in that I didn't intend to start a debate on the tail of a support question... but from my point of view using Windows 7 is not defiance. It's defence.

    I feel an operating system should stay out of your way... so on my personal system I will use Windows 7 until something else is viable.

    You guys do you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-12T17:22:37+00:00

    Today Windows 11 updated to Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621, but the problem remains just as bad as ever.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-06T00:41:32+00:00

    Had this problems for quite awhile now. Only occurred after laptop startup/restart and when using a shortcut for a third-party spreadsheet app from within a folder on the Desktop that had been created to store various shortcuts. Solution for me: 1-Open Explorer, 2-Click the three dots "...", 3-Click "Options", 4-Click "View", 5-Scroll down almost halfway through the list to see "Launch folder windows in a separate process" (it's checkbox did not have a checkmark), 6-Click the Checkbox for "Launch folder windows ..." to select, and 7-Click "Apply" in the lower right corner. Hope this works for others.

    Thanks for posting. I just did that - followed that above. But the gpupdate /force thing still makes the explorer window pop up. So that method most likely won't resolve what's happening with Win 11.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-01T08:03:28+00:00

    I've been having this issue for a month now, and it also happens while gaming. It's very annoying. Fix it please.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-06-28T11:13:27+00:00

    or to put it another way, MS are giving themselves 12 months to fix the bugs from last year before releasing next year's batch.

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