[Solved] "choice.microsoft.com" impairs my Windows 8.1 experience

I recently did a custom install of Windows 8.1 64bit Enterprise (12/15/2014 ISO).
Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) shows connections to choice.microsoft.com for all browsers and bittorrent programs: standalone firefox.exe, tor browser firefox.exe, tor.exe, palemoon.exe, seamonkey.exe, qbittorrent.exe.
Is this normal? Does anybody else see this? Can this silliness be disabled?

(I have choice.microsoft.com blocked in HOSTS file, but Tor browser apparently does not rely on HOSTS.)

Screenshot or resmon.exe screen is attached.

 

Thank you very much! This indeed was the reason. I've added to the top of hosts file:

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost #[IPv6]

And problem is solved.