Alt+Tab and touchpad swipe fail to switch properly when returning from fullscreen game to YouTube fullscreen tab

Title: Alt+Tab and touchpad swipe fail to switch properly when returning from fullscreen game to YouTube fullscreen tab

Description:

When switching from a fullscreen game (Genshin Impact) running in borderless mode to a Brave tab playing a fullscreen YouTube video, Alt+Tab and three-finger swipe gestures require two inputs to move one window forward. This issue occurs only in fullscreen video mode on YouTube.

Key Observations:

  • The issue only happens when the YouTube video is in fullscreen mode (not theater mode).
  • The issue does not occur in Firefox, only in Brave/Chromium-based browsers.
  • The issue disappears when the video is in theater mode.
  • Explorer.exe refresh is required to remove the “mirror tab” issue after Alt+Tabbing.

The problem is observed across multiple virtual desktops (Win+Ctrl+→/←) with hundreds of YouTube tabs opened, likely contributing to the issue. GPU hardware acceleration is disabled in Brave.

System Information:

  • Windows version: Windows 11
  • Brave version: Version 1.78.97 Chromium: 136.0.7103.93 (Official Build) (64-bit)
  • GPU Hardware Acceleration: Off (disabled)
  • Game: Genshin Impact (borderless windowed mode)

Expected behavior:

  • Alt+Tab or three-finger swipe should switch directly to the YouTube tab in one input.

Actual behavior:

  • Requires two Alt+Tab presses or two swipe gestures to switch to the YouTube tab.

Additional Notes:

This issue appears related to Chromium’s fullscreen video handling when switching from a fullscreen game. The “mirror tab” issue where multiple tabs appear to be open even though only one is focused, requires restarting explorer.exe to resolve.