Solved Windows 11 File Explorer focus issue when clicking drives

Hello everyone,
I'm experiencing a persistent issue with File Explorer on Windows 11 and I’m trying to understand whether it’s a system bug, user profile corruption, or something deeper in the OS.
The main issue is related to File Explorer focus behavior: when I open File Explorer and click on a different drive (e.g. C:, D:), the focus does not change correctly to the right side (the contents of the drive) like it always did.
What I already checked / tried:
I reviewed Event Viewer (System logs) around the time of the issue and found:

• Several DCOM permission warnings (SecurityAppBroker / CLSID-related entries)
• Multiple Google Update service timeouts (gupdate)
• Installation entries for a cpuz kernel-mode driver (cpuz160)

However:

• There are no clear explorer.exe crash events
• No obvious GPU driver failure or hardware error logs

Additional observations:

• The issue appears to be specific to the current user profile
• After creating a new Windows user account for testing, the system behaved normally
• When returning to the original account, I also noticed that some file association settings had been reset
• The problem seems isolated to shell / Explorer behavior rather than general system instability

At this point I’m considering:

• Corrupted Windows user profile (most likely)
• File Explorer shell or UI state corruption
• Registry or file association corruption
• Background service or driver conflict affecting Explorer responsiveness

Has anyone experienced similar File Explorer focus issues on Windows 11?
Specifically:

• Drive selection not updating correctly
• Explorer UI losing focus or becoming partially unresponsive
• Issues tied to a single user profile rather than the whole system

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

P.s. I used Chatgpt to try help me solve this. All of the things already checked, it were Chatgpt suggestions. Since english is not my main language and Chatgpt had all the informations and the things we tried, i asked it to help me write this message (that i manually edited).

Edit.: I forgot to mention that, when this problem occurred and Chatgpt made me do various things, on the left side of Windows explorer, the Desktop link has disappeared (I have all the other links and the drives list but not the Desktop one anymore).

I'm experiencing a persistent issue with File Explorer on Windows 11 and I’m trying to understand whether it’s a system bug, user profile corruption, or something deeper in the OS.

Click to expand...

I suspect you've partly answered your own question by wisely testing with a new user account. That you don't see the problem there indicates that general Windows repairs will not help you.

You might consider using Account Fixer on this page if your problem account can't be fixed:

- or, if you have a suitable System Restore point created before this started, use that, else you could try restoring a previously created 3rd party disk image, created before this started.

dalchina said:

I suspect you've partly answered your own question by wisely testing with a new user account. That you don't see the problem there indicates that general Windows repairs will not help you.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer. I'm trying everything i can to solve this issue, because setting everything up on a new windows account will take a lot of time.

Please see my full reply above. There are two options, besides the Account Fixer, which claims to automate the process of creating and transferring to a new user profile.

Nightmare1304 said:

when I open File Explorer and click on a different drive (e.g. C:, D:), the focus does not change correctly to the right side (the contents of the drive) like it always did.

Click to expand...

so you're accessing those drives from the Navigation Pane entries, correct?

dalchina said:

Please see my full reply above. There are two options, besides the Account Fixer, which claims to automate the process of creating and transferring to a new user profile.

Click to expand...

I just used the "Account Profile Fixer" software as suggested. The problem is solved, but it deleted every single Windows settings and other stuff. Basically it's like what Chatgpt suggested (using a new profile) and start over, the only difference is that is my old account but it's like you just installed Windows 11 for the first time. I guess it was destiny. Thank you guys anyway for trying to help. I just need a lot of patience and hours (maybe days) to set everything up (settings/softwares/links/file assosiactions/ecc.).

dacrone said:

so you're accessing those drives from the Navigation Pane entries, correct?

Click to expand...

Hello. The problem was "solved". See my last reply to Dalchina user.

It seems from the description is moves the data, but doesn't configure programs. As such it's limited in creating a new account


e.g.

Keep Windows store apps's package data from the old account: This options allows you to keep the %LocalAppData%\Packages folder from the old user account profile. This folder is where Windows Store apps save settings, files and other data. If your problem was not related to one or more Windows Store apps, you can keep this folder, so that data from your apps is automatically loaded once you install them in the new user account.


Keep Windows system appdata from the old account: This option allows you to keep the %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows folder from the old user account profile. This folder is where Windows saves system settings related to the user. Note that, even if you choose to keep this folder, the user classes hive (UsrClass.dat) will still be replaced with the one from the new user account.

Click to expand...

If you'd been able to use either of the other two options, you would have been better off.

If you've not yet started using 3rd party disk imaging, now's a good time... System Restore points complement that nicely.

dalchina said:

It seems from the description is moves the data, but doesn't configure programs. As such it's limited in creating a new account

Account Profile Fixer

Account Profile Fixer - Easily repair severe issues without reinstalling/resetting Windows

www.carifred.com

e.g.


If you'd been able to use either of the other two options, you would have been better off.

If you've not yet started using 3rd party disk imaging, now's a good time... System Restore points complement that nicely.

Click to expand...

Yes, it gave me those 2 options before doing the job, but also told me something like "if you use one or two of those options it's likely that the problem will not be solved". And so i let the "nuke" start. I didn't realize it would reset so many things though.
Well, as wrote before, probably it was destiny and time to start over. Thank you again for your help.