[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Windows 8 is a problem to tame, aside from the 'playschool' interface. While it does offer a high degree of control to the user, it is always trying to do something in the background that you are barely aware of, and that something could be either an annoyance or downright unwanted (e.g. unwanted updates, reporting information back to to microsoft , etc.)

In my case, I noticed, using a data transfer rate Reporting Tool , that there was always data being uploaded (or downloaded) to somewhere on the internet, even when I thought nothing was happening.
Given that I have a super-tight data limit on my internet service, this "data leak to unknown destinations" is a major problem.

I use a good freeware firewall called "Privatefirewall 7" that gives me some indicator of background processes that I was not aware of, and I was able to use this tool to block a few programs that were sending or receiving unwanted data in the background.

Another way that I was able to find programs running in the background that were sending (or receiving) "unwanted" data to somewhere on the internet is to find the "Services" utility in windows 8
Just find the "Run" programs box, and type in "services.msc". If you do this, you might get a surprise as to how many annoying and unwanted things your computer is doing in the background!!!
(this is an ever increasing problem, with every sequential release of new windows versions)

Also, in most versions of windows, this little bugger of an O.S. loads programs at the start that you don't want it to load, so you need to find "Startup" to stop this.