How can I fix this from happening?

Try this:
Control Panel > Networks & Home sharing (similar to that at least, might just be Netorks)
There may be one more step to click through for wired and wireless connections. But just right click, and either remove, uninstall etc. You could also attempt to uninstall the drivers or disableing for whichever connections you do not use if that does not work. Once windows no longer recognizes the network interfaces, your task manager should go back to normad.