TL;DR:
The Windows File Explorer is now dependent on Microsoft Recall being installed on Windows 11 24H2 editions and likely later.
This means that if you wish to use newer versions of the Window file explorer, you have to install recall on your system. Recall is a deeply-rooted, non-negotiable feature on all modern versions of Windows.
Solution
If you wish to strip out recall from your system, you are no longer able to use the built-in graphical file explorer and must use a third-party tool, and if you’re not allowed to do that on the machine, then you are forced to have recall running on the system as it doesn’t appear on any graphical settings pages.
The other solution is to prepare for transitioning into a free operating system such as GNU/Linux with distributions such as Linux Mint which is designed specifically for that transition. You can also run an older version of Windows and refuse to update.
Errata
Turns out that this issue has been exaggerated and that there are ways to disable co-pilot on Windows machines (or at the very least, command Windows to do so). Also it’s debatable whether this program does any harm on non “copilot” computers but you can be the judge of that.
Stockholm syndrome.
Would like to remind everyone that Stockholm Syndrome is literally “Women be crazy” because a psychologist who never interviewed the Stockholm bank robbery hostages decided that was the only reason why the hostages were chill with the robbers, who were not trying to kill them, while being pissed off with the government, who literally called one woman and told her it was her duty to die in a police shootout to save the bank or some shit, was that she had fallen in love with her captor due to trauma or something. Like the government almost killed them all a number of times over some money, and they ended up trying to help the robbers with negotiations so the government wouldn’t just kill them all and let god sort it out.
This essay brought to you by reading wikipedia at 3am for most of my life.
If I were to explain it more specifically (sans people are dumb level takes), when something is part of the dominant hegemony (Windows has almost become synonymous with the personal computer, something still connected to a Pax Americana mythos) and people aren’t educated on different options then all people have are anecdotes and personal wisdom. Windows as a brand and as a force in computer technology warps everything around it, not the other way around. That’s why we see so many conflicting opinions on Windows, there’s not a leg for people to stand on and judge their experiences objectively. People’s lives depend on the very thing that’s hurting them.
Add a huge splash of US hegemony to the mix and you can see how Silicon Valley is the technological Hollywood of the world. Communal efforts to create software for the common good is one of the main ways to combat this because it gives us an external vocabulary outside of the silicon valley ideology that’s taught to us. I only really started to understand how computers work when I delved into free software projects.
I totally agree, Just wanted to point out the origin of “Stockholm Syndrome”. Most folks don’t really know where the term came from, the part about the psychologist trying to explain away the very reasonable behavior of the hostages.