Game minimizes when a window in background opens

I'm playing in Full Screen 1920x1080 and Path of Exile minimizes every time a window on the desktop opens up, whether it's from a chat request or a taskbar bubble telling me to update something or when I plug in a USB drive and Windows Explorer pops up. I'm using Windows 8.

Is there an easy fix or is this just an annoyance I'll have to live with? It's killed me a couple of times (only on softcore I can't really whine), and it only happens on Path of Exile, none of my other games.

This is normal windows behavior.

Isn't very helpful, and as I said it only happens with Path of Exile. Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, various Steam games, heck even full screening my browser, and none of those minimize when things come up behind it.