I take it from your response you never used Windows XP .... windows 95.
(I was not asking how WE works, I know it quite well)
All previous windows, if you were 'viewing' the 'removed' drive/device, Windows Explorer (WE) would 'SIMPLY' move the 'focus' down 1 drive, ex. G:\ is removed, it would move to H:\ or even to control panel (I think) but NEVER would it close WE!!
Maybe vista acted like WE does in Win7 but no other windows ever did!
So thanks for the explanation, but this action must be completely related to 'Autoplay' (and obviously the recoded WE) which I think IMHO, is totally for unsophisticated/inexperienced/and the MAC/OS-X user.
Who wants a 2 TeraByte drive to be 'autoplayed' everytime you connect it?!!
Totally absurd! Personally I want NOTHING to autoplay and have it set thus.
So, it would have been VERY easy for WE to 'know' if it opened a specific WE, and thus close it appropriately OTHERWISE WE would ignore the closing and act exactly like WE did in all previous windows, focus elsewhere.
So, thanks again but......
If explorer is actually displaying the contents of the drive you're removing, its going to close the window when you remove that drive. There is no point showing files and folders that are no longer there? If you switch the view to another folder/drive before you remove the drive the window will stay open and the drive you removed will disappear from the tree view on the left and the window will remain open.