OT: re-routing Windows auto update services to local host

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Jordan,

Below are the services/servers I have discovered so far which
automatically update something, despite having turned off automatic
updates in the Windows settings panel. This applies to Windows 8.1;
there may be others, of course, and some of those listed may be
peculiar to my Toshiba (which delivered w/a lot of rubbish on top of
the usual Windows rubbish). Copy-paste the text below into your hosts
file (sans suffix); the path is c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc
- --this should prevent the services from attempting to contact the
servers (reboot the computer, of course, and delete the dns cache).
You will probably have to open the host file in 'run as administrator'
mode, otherwise Windows will not let you save any changes to the file.

127.0.0.1 dns.msftncsi.com
127.0.0.1 next-services.apps.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 client.wns.windows.com
127.0.0.1 DB3WNS4011306.wns.windows.com
127.0.0.1 mscrl.microsoft.com
127.0.0.1 www.msftncsi.com
127.0.0.1 ctldl.windowsupdate.com
127.0.0.1 www.windowssearch.com
127.0.0.1 sls.update.microsoft.com

127.0.0.1 notifications.ennova-research.com
127.0.0.1 finance.services.appex.bing.com
127.0.0.1 foodanddrink.services.appex.bing.com
127.0.0.1 api.health.appex.bing.com
127.0.0.1 en-us.appex-rf.msn.com
127.0.0.1 login.live.com

127.0.0.1 mobile.ds.skyscanner.net
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 twitter.com
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.twitter.com

Good luck,