Getting optional updates for Server 2012 R2 but have 8.1?

Hi people, I'm on a ASUS G759JW and recently had to run a DISM source restorehealth using the files provided by topgundcp on this thread. Worked like a charm, DISM came up squeaky clean. Did not have access to local group policy editor as I'm running basic 8.1 and files provided by Microsoft online didn't contain ISO.

Afterwards I was trying to resolve some strangeness in event viewer assuming a lot of it was being caused by incompatible drivers. Downloaded some programs from Windows Assessment Toolkit to scan for issues. Drivers came up fine besides having a TON of unnecessary oem's (however I'm still trying to find some clear instructions on how to remove these drivers using DISM without spending a huge amount of time. I wasted over a week trying to fix the previously mentioned issue and can no longer afford to be blindly jacking about with it.). Still getting a lot of messages in event viewer but far fewer critical and warning entries than I was before restorehealth (pointing device is driving me nuts). I've been checking event viewer mainly to figure out why my dvd player is being initialized randomly as if on startup or upon opening itunes. Icon is a document, believe it's a paired SSD with DVD.

Here I was thinking I had everything fairly well taken care of but now I'm getting a plethora of optional Windows Updates for Windows Server 2012 R2. I have no need for this kind of setup and I'm running basic 8.1. I have no idea why I'm getting these as optional updates and there are so many it's taking too much time to go through each and every update to read the info (avoiding that 10 update garbage). Concerned I may have turned something on unintentionally or installed extra files. Any ideas?

I've been bumbling through this as I'm fairly good with computers but I've never had issues to the extent I've experience with 8.1. The restorehealth situation really pushed me well beyond what I've been used to messing with in the past and there was a lot of trial and error trying to sort out what was happening before even coming across the sfc and dism information. I've tried not to tweak anything I'm not familiar with unless there's a consensus among those in the forums and sometimes info being confirmed by people at Microsoft.

Thanks in advance for any advice/clarity on the subject. This forum has been the best resource I've found for information and I want to thank you all for being freaking awesome. :thumb:

168 views and not a single response. Thanks guys.