Bug when creating new folder

As of sometime in 2023 I believe, when I create new folders on Windows 11, the navigation bar regularly becomes highlighted, resulting in an inhibitory dropdown, preventing me from naming the folder that I just created or selecting anything underneath the dropdown, until I click on a certain area (e.g. toolbar panel) to close the dropdown. Happens on both my Lenovo desktop and Surface 4 laptop. Seems to happen more often on external hard drive folders, but I might be wrong. I reported this to Windows a while ago via the feedback hub but there's no update yet. Any ideas? Here is a screen recording of the issue:

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Here's a couple of things to try.

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

Do a quick clean boot to make sure no software is causing the problem. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Are you using any kind of Windows File Explorer tweaks?

Or any other program that redirects the focus? Like a Mouse setting?

It seems like something is directing the focus to the address bar when you create a new folder.

Also, as a workaround, you don't have to (necessarily) click anywhere, when that does occur, tapping the Esc key should make the address bar dropdown hide itself, and then you can rename the folder.

But you're right, this is still a work-around to something that is not working as expected.

What’s that address in the address bar that shows when the address bar pops open?

The full path of the new folder just created.

johnlgalt said:

The full path of the new folder just created.

Click to expand...

Can’t see on my phone, thanks

johnlgalt said:

The full path of the new folder just created.

Click to expand...

Tried to capture it, really blurry, looks odd to me. Perhaps not English?

Lol apparently I can't see it either - from your screenshot, it actually looks like it says:

I:\^\Z\_\New folder

Either way, though, something is definitely interfering, with that something being some sort of script / addon / software / etc., that is inserting what seems to be a CTRL + Z key sequence (typically used as an undo function in a lot of apps). The presence of the underscore afterward is even weirder.

@chawke - Verify that you don't have any special scripts set to run on your system, and that all addon utilities and modification utilities (like Start All Is Back, Start 11, etc.) are all turned off and see if the behavior persists.

Might not be a bad idea to create a new user (temporarily) to test there as well.

If it still happens, run your AV for a full scan, and then, if you don't already have it, download and run Malwarebytes, and see if either of those find anything.

Also, while we're on the subject - is this your own, personally owned device, or a work-supplied / school-supplied device?

johnlgalt said:

Lol apparently I can't see it either - from your screenshot, it actually looks like it says:

I:\^\Z\_\New folder

Click to expand...

That’s what I figured it might be. To be honest I was stumped with the ^ as I wasn’t aware that was able to be used in file/folder naming, basically because I’d never used it I suppose. I thought the file path may of been corrupt. All good, thanks mate

I had this same exact problem.

In my case it kept happening on the internal SSD even when none of my external drives were plugged in. This isn't the only bug that was introduced by Microsoft in File Explorer, and in fact I lost count of them about two years ago or so. Could be more than a whole dozen by now. Until Microsoft finally wakes up and provides a more permanent fix, which could take months, years, possibly more than a decade especially if they continue at this rate, here is the best workaround that, at least for me, and as far as I have been able to see, gets rid of every single bug that exists in File Explorer on Windows 11, but doesn't exist on Windows 10:

ExplorerPatcher (on GitHub) ➜ go to Properties ➜ File Explorer ➜ Control Interface: Windows 10 Ribbon

It produced that weird path too?

johnlgalt said:

It produced that weird path too?

Click to expand...

I can't remember anything about the folderpath, as this happened to me a fairly long time ago. What I do remember very clearly, though, is that the symptom that I had experienced matched the description, "Creating a new folder in File Explorer regularly results in an inhibitory dropdown of the address bar."

johnlgalt said:

It produced that weird path too?

Click to expand...

Be good to hear more from the OP.

chawke said:

As of sometime in 2023 I believe, when I create new folders on Windows 11, the navigation bar regularly becomes highlighted, resulting in an inhibitory dropdown, preventing me from naming the folder that I just created or selecting anything underneath the dropdown, until I click on a certain area (e.g. toolbar panel) to close the dropdown.

Click to expand...

This is a known issue that's caused by a focus problem in the Windows 11 Explorer. If the cursor is in the address bar and you select something from the "New" menu (the one to the upper left) the focus remains in the address bar, causing the issue you describe.

Microsoft should fix this so it works the way it does in Windows 10. That is, the Windows 10 Explorer automatically changes the focus to the main Explorer pane when you select something from the "New item" menu.

The workaround is to use the right-click "New" menu instead.

Good catch - I just verified this myself, once I've clicked in the address bar, if I don't click anywhere else before clicking in New, I get the same behavior with the address bar drop down.,

What I don't get is that absolutely weird path the OP shows in video. SO I winder if that is the OP's actual path, and not related to the issue?

LesFerch said:

Microsoft should fix this

Click to expand...

"Microsoft should fix this" can be taken as expectation if the emphasis is on "should" or as annoyance if the emphasis is on "fix". I meant the latter. There shall be no disappointment without expectation.