snip and sketch doesn't come to front after new windows 10 install

I recently did a clean install of Windows 1o Pro 21H1 due to random restart issues. With my new install of Windows, S&S doesn't behave properly if I have Calculator or Photos app running. Usually, when I'd capture a rectangular snip the S&S window would come to the front with the snip and the S&S window would be located on top of the snipped area. I've found that if Calculator or Photos is open then it'll bring Calculator or Photos window to the front and S&S will be buried behind other windows. If I take a snip without Calculator or Photos open then the S&S window comes to the front after the snip.

Now another complication: I read about some troubleshooting and tried opening S&S with shift-windows-S. Now, the option to select snip type is no longer shown within S&S and when I click 'new' the display goes grey and the snip type option shows up at the top of the screen.

I've tried resetting and/or repair of all three apps from Apps & Programs with no luck.

Snipping tool still works as it should.

Thanks!

dalchina, thanks for your response

dalchina said:

Hi, Calculator has an 'on top' button- is that set? I can't see one on Photos though.

No, Keep on top is not set.

dalchina said:

Was that a true clean install where you deleted partitions comprising your existing O/S and installed Win 10 to unallocated space?

Yes, m.2 drive was formatted as I moved to a UEFI installation.

dalchina said:

That should take you directly to the greyed out display of course.

I may be confusing the behavior of Snipping tool and S&S. I was thinking S&S still had the mode selection within the app, rather than within the greyed out display. Let's forget about that for now.

dalchina said:

If you create a new account for test purposes and log in as that user, do these behave correctly?

Same behavior as with my usual account. I noticed that it also brings 'Mail' to front instead of S&S. The behavior seems as though it's not sure which Microsoft app to bring to front if multiples are open.
I tested on my other Windows machine and S&S appropriately comes to the front after taking a snip.