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
    2023-11-03T14:15:20+00:00

    Thank you for the evidence here. Shame to see the issue is still present in the latest update.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-03T13:20:43+00:00

    I was offered 23H2 this morning (by seeking) and I upgraded.

    Now, the issue sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't (each with brand new File Explorer window instances)... when it doesn't happen, you can still see the File Explorer window flickering/refreshing in the background when it would normally pop-over what I'm doing:

    When it "works" (notice the flash in the backgrounded File Explorer window at the 10 second mark): sometimes works (vimeo.com)

    When it doesn't work (same old nonsense, notice the background explorer window take over my screen at the 7 second mark): sometimes doesn't work (vimeo.com)

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-02T18:52:09+00:00

    Yep, the issue has been reported to Microsoft via proper channels by myself and others, yet Microsoft has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue, much less offer a fix.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-01T12:42:54+00:00

    Perhaps MS is not seeing these comments, and they need to be submitted to the proper comment database so MS will fix it. ??

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-01T12:06:07+00:00

    Sad times, 23H2 does not appear to fix this issue :(

    Below is a Video I uploaded of the issue on this latest version, I am so annoyed that this is in the 23H2, considering the Preview builds fixed the bug:

    https://youtu.be/IpKzFpSQzj0

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