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
    2023-09-28T07:23:59+00:00

    The OP and most comments here are about an already-open File Explorer window coming from the background to the foreground. But in my case, I don't even use File Explorer (I have Directory Opus Pro) - at random, something (Windows?) will actually launch File Explorer. Is that the same bug or something different? It seems to do it in spurts - one day it will do it several times, and then not do it at all for days or even weeks. No, I'm not hitting any hotkeys - when it happened just now, I was watching a YouTube video in Firefox and not even touching the computer.

    I am not aware of File Explorer being opened as part of this issue. Our issue is specifically an existing File Explorer window (or windows) being granted unwanted focus.

    The issues might still be related - perhaps Directory Opus Pro uses File Explorer under the hood - but given you're not using File Explorer and your symptoms are different, you would be best to report your issue separately. Possibly to GPSoftware, too.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-22T15:43:23+00:00

    Update after update, yet this bug remains unfixed.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-20T07:38:55+00:00

    Unfortunately that still won't work for everyone, as I can assure you I've manually disabled OneDrive on my PC since the day I got it. every time I go through task manager I never see OneDrive started so that can't be it

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-17T00:39:00+00:00

    Turned off "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices" and it solved the problem. Why would you ever want the OS do something automatically when plugging in an external storage device, security-wise it is really stupid.

    Remove AUTOPLAY!

    /rob

    That avenue has come up before, and a lot of us have tested on our Win 11 systems with autoplay 'off', and mine is still off for all devices and media. Had been disabled for ages. And I'm still getting the explorer pop-ups every single day.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-08-24T07:29:51+00:00

    ... if there happens to be a short-cut key combination that allows me to trigger a script that minimises all existing Explorer windows (background and/or foreground) ...

    There is a shortcut key combination for minimising windows, but I'm not sure it works for this issue. You can use WIN+D to minimise everything and return to the desktop.

    There have been a few new posts recently, so I just wanted to remind any newcomers that we believe we understand when this issue happens - it is not random and seems to be related to group policy updates. It can be reproduced manually by running gpupdate /force from a command prompt (assuming there is an explorer window in the background that hasn't already been affected by the issue or manually minimised). Group policy updates occur on all versions of Windows 11, even Home and PCs not connected to an active directory. In theory, the issue could be solved by Home users, but that doesn't help all us poor sods trying to get work done.

    Lastly, we believe Microsoft has fixed this in a developer edition of Windows, and there is hope that an update will be released to fix it soon. EDIT: But a fix is already frustratingly LATE.

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