Lee, that seems like a very helpful suggestion. That said, I run Win7 and I don’t have any crackling issues. However, reading your post, you are running Win8 - just like the OP. So I can assume this may be Win8 oriented?
Here’s what I don’t understand? On my Win7 DAW, I can simply turn off my Wi-Fi connection from the Taskbar when I record. At this point I feel comfortable that my Win7 software is not trying to use any of the connection services you list in your post. My thinking here is that the Wi-Fi interface from my PC controls the services, i.e., no connection = no services. In Win8, couldn’t you just disconnect the Wi-Fi connection and avoid the turning off of all the services? Am I missing something?