New windows are systematically opened in the background

[triplemaya]

This has been going on a long time.
There is a previous thread with this title:
[Mysteriously Solved] New windows are systematically opened on the background
Running MATE 1.26.0
lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Linuxmint
Description: Linux Mint 21.1
Release: 21.1
Codename: vera
Everything is up to date.
No useful settings of any kind under Preferences / Windows
Just to emphasise how serious this is, I accidentally deleted an entire directory by mistake. This will take some considerable time to remake. Surely this cannot be an acceptable issue for us to live with!

[SMG]

This has been going on a long time.
There is a previous thread with this title:
[Mysteriously Solved] New windows are systematically opened on the background

That topic is about someone running the Cinnamon desktop and not MATE like you are.

How does the issue you are experiencing relate to you deleting a directory?

[triplemaya]

Hi. Thanks for the response. Forgot to tick Notify me ...

It could be. I was super stressed when all this started and have no recollection of anything that might have triggered it.

[mikeflan]

Surely this cannot be an acceptable issue for us to live with!

It is not, and it appears to be very rare, though others have clearly had the same problem.
I would Timeshift way back in an attempt to fix it.
If that didn't work I would create another user and see if the problem happens there.
If neither of those work then I would reinstall.

Again, I have not seen this in 4 years of using LM.
I have seen it on windows a few times, but only with one particular program.