How do some programs connect to the internet even when the folder they are in is blocked by firewall. It is using internet explorer and port 80. Can it be stopped
As you know I am no longer fond of Windows so my gut answer would leave you wanting to "smack me". Back to the point; are the programs in question ones that you only run rarely and only want them to run when you manually fire them up? I had several and I simply moved them to virtual drives where I had complete control as to whether or not the drives are mounted. When closed/unmounted not even Windows can make them run. Just a simple idea if you don't mind mounting a virtual drive to run a program. The password doesn't have to be long, its not about security of password entropy, its closing the drive to OS access.
