Forum Discussion
File Explorer windows pops up out of nowhere
Since a day or so, at seemingly random moments a File Explorer window pops up in front of everything. This started to happen shortly after I had installed ExplorerPatcher. I am 100% positive that it never happened before, I would have remembered.
This post You're Not Alone: Windows 11 Is Randomly Opening File Explorer says that this is a Windows 11 issue (which seems unlikely to me as I never saw it before installing EP), and that it does not create a new window but only brings an existing window to the foreground (which is pertinently untrue, it does create a new file explorer window). Some further investigation suggests that it happens when an application that was using full screen switches back to normal display (at least that is how I can reliably reproduce it).
It is not a big deal but it's annoying, and somewhat spoils my joy in having discovered ExplorerPatcher. Any ideas out there ?
- Since you mentioned that the issue occurs when an application switches back to normal display, it's possible that a specific app is triggering the File Explorer window to pop up. Try closing all open apps and see if the issue persists.
- Since you mentioned that the issue occurs when an application switches back to normal display, it's possible that a specific app is triggering the File Explorer window to pop up. Try closing all open apps and see if the issue persists.
So, something virtually the same started happening for me about a month ago. The difference is that it didn't matter if I had all file explorer windows closed, it would just launch a new instance. In fact, it would always launch a new instance, and I would have multiple instances of the same file windows open before I had a chance to close them. And like you, It would happen when I switched from full screen. It happens on youtube on chrome and firefox, also happens with twitter/X video player.
