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.

0 comments

575 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T15:46:00+00:00

    There are multiple things that trigger this behavior. Happened as well when i got a windows notification for an email.

    The background was the one i could reproduce reliably.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T15:31:15+00:00

    Thanks for the tip, Stephen Prieß. I have rotating desktop backgrounds that change about every 15 minutes, but on my system those changes don't appear to have anything to do with the Explorer pop-up issue.

    Again, my experience is if you have one or more instances of Windows Explorer opened under Windows 11, they will frequently and randomly move to the fore without apparent cause.

    If you're typing into an MS Word document when this happens, for example, the next thing you know you're inadvertently typing into Windows Explorer, maybe even changing a file name without intending to; this issue is a significant impediment to overall productivity.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T15:08:19+00:00

    Don't know if there is already an answer but as far as I can tell the explorer pops up the first time the background changes after you open the explorer.

    After the first background change the explorer stays in the background

    Thanks! As far as I'm aware, that's new information.

    I don't have changing background images, although I do usually have two or three monitors.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T14:57:21+00:00

    Don't know if there is already an answer but as far as I can tell the explorer pops up the first time the background changes after you open the explorer.

    After the first background change the explorer stays in the background

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-22T17:30:15+00:00

    To clarify: I installed Win11 Pro licensed ver. fresh, no upgrade install. I updated to Win 11 ver 22H2 on 9/22/2022 and had no issues, including the one this thread is about.

    Sometime several months ago, following an update (wish I'd tracked this better), the whole Explorer popup issue started to occur. Note that this thread was started 1/1/2023, so perhaps we can assume that this issue cropped up within a month of that date. Here are a list of possible updates that could be associated with this issue (the update dates are mine, not release dates):

    12/16/2022: KB5021233 Cumulative Update for 22H2

    12/14/2022: KB5021255

    12/4/2022: KB5020044

    Also, as has been suggested, running a repair reinstallation of Win11 (or 10) might help. There's a guild to this procedure here:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reinstall-windows-d8369486-3e33-7d9c-dccc-859e2b022fc7#bkmk_reinstall_windows_10_using_installation_media

    There's an option that will allow you to keep all your data, settings and apps. I've used this in the past and it worked well to clear up issues. Be sure to run a full clone/image backup of your boot drive before proceeding, just in case!

    At some point, I'll likely go this route, when time permits. If/when I do, I'll report results here.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments