Explorer.exe randomly taking focus - Windows 11

Question

Firstly, I've been using my same PC for 3 years (minus a few upgrades, graphics card etc) on windows 10 and never ever had this issue.

Recently I had the pop up saying I'm eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 - Cool, why not.

So I've been using windows 11 for a couple of weeks now and I'm enjoying it... apart from one VERY annoying issue I'm having.

When playing a fullscreen application (or borderless window, it doesnt matter) It will randomly minimize itself to start bar, the same kind of action If I were to Alt-Tab out of it.

This isn't an issue with any one program, it can happen in any game I'm playing, or even just fullscreen applications I leave running, such as Heaven benchmark or other benchmarking programs.

Its not an accidental press of windows key or anything daft like that, It even happens when gaming with a PS5 controller, hands nowhere near the desk.

This can happen within a minute or 2 of playing a game, or sometimes go as long as 20 minutes without happening, but it WILL happen and will repeat itself periodically.

I figured somehow another window is taking focus out of my game and tabbing to it, but no other window or notification etc actually pops up, I'm just left staring at my desktop.

I managed to find a program online someone created which logs which windows are in focus in order, so using this program I was able to determine that when im gaming and this happens, the window taking focus is 'Explorer.exe'. which is suspiciously the same thing that is in focus if I just click on my background on my desktop from another program. Its essentially like my PC is just tabbing itself to desktop for no reason.

As mentioned above, ive not had this issue ever in 3 years with windows 10 and its only started happening when upgrading to windows 11 so clearly something new or different is causing this.

Things ive already tried... Disabling notifications, Turning on/off 'Game Mode'. Changing power plans. Disabling 'minimize when a second monitor is plugged in or removed.

None of these have solved this. At this point im thinking of just reverting back to windows 10 for now.

Answer 1

same issue here on a pc that never had windows 10 installed either... and it started happening around the same time this person reported.

I dont have a wallpaper at all, i have a plain black background.

In that particular period in time the only updates windows 11 received were 2023-01 cumulative updates 22H2 for x64-basierte Systems (KB5022303) (KB 4023057) (KB5022360) as well as

.NET 6.0.13 (KB 5022404) and

.NET Security Update (KB 5022546)

I speculate especially one of the cumulative updates could be the culprit.

Answer 2

I also got this issue it started with a freshly installed windows 11 on a newly built PC, It still happens even after I updated windows. Randomly the file explorer pops up changing screen focus. Usually once a day but often times more than once. It is very annoying when it happens because it steals focus. It doesn't open a new file explorer, only a random already opened file explorer window that I already have opened.

Answer 3

Same happening here. Fresh Win11 install and no problems with changing focus unless Explorer is open, then it will happen within 30 mins. Wallpapers change every 30 mins in my setup, so, as already as suggested, it could be this. It only appears to do it once with the same instance of Explorer open.

Switched to a static wallpaper and problem stopped.

Answer 4

as stated in my OP ...

I DO NOT USE WALLPAPERS AT ALL (plain black background mono color)

Anyway doesnt matter because MS doesnt give a toss about this problems it seems.