Forum Discussion
BUG: After closing a window, focus goes to the Taskbar
In Windows 10 and 11 when you switch to a window by clicking its Taskbar button (i.e., not by Alt+Tab) and then close it, focus goes to the Taskbar and not to the most recent window. I consider this a bug.
Steps to reproduce
If you open Windows Settings (Win+I), you can start typing in the search field, because the cursor blinks there. If you switch to another app and back (Alt+Tab twice) then you can continue typing. But, if you try the following, you get a surprising result:
- Press Win+E, which starts a Windows Explorer.
- Press Win+I, which opens Windows Settings. You can type into it.
- Switch to Windows Explorer by clicking its Taskbar button, then close it with red X.
- Now you see the Settings window, but you can't continue typing, because the Taskbar has focus and not the Settings window. You have to explicitly click into Settings to be able to type again. My expectation: The most recent window (Settings) should get focused, so that you can immediately continue typing.
Typical usage scenario: browsing the internet
In this hypothetical scenario we will be reading an article on the internet, but for a moment we will switch to a different app (Windows Explorer). Thus, start by opening an Edge and a Windows Explorer, then follow these steps:
- Switch to Edge. (You start by reading the article).
- You want to check something in Windows Explorer, so switch to it by clicking its Taskbar button, then close it.
- You see the Edge window again. It has no focus, but you don't realize it yet. You just continue reading, scroll, scroll and read on.
- You want to search for a word, so you press Ctrl+F = find on page, but it doesn't work. The reason: Ctrl+F goes to the Taskbar and not to Edge. You can work this around by reaching for the mouse, clicking on the Edge window to focus it, and then pressing Ctrl+F.
I suppose, Windows had this bug forever, but it wasn't so apparent, because you couldn't (until Windows 8 or 10) scroll a window's content if it wasn't focused.
2 Replies
- I'm having a related problem. When I'm navigating an explorer window with the keyboard and open a .txt file with notepad, if I then close the file with alt+F4 the typical behavior in past versions is that the explorer window is in focus again so I can continue navigating with the arrow keys never having to touch the mouse or do anything else to bring the window back in focus. This is how I quickly review old files and delete them. Other file types/programs are not exhibiting this behavior. I almost expected the Photos app to do so because I'm having another issue which affects both Notepad and Photos (if I open existing files via start menu search, they open behind all other windows).
