Windows 8.1 Pro, Disk running constantly at 100%, resolved

I was experiencing problems where my computer's disk was running at 100% constantly, as soon as I restarted the computer and switched to the Desktop.  This started happening in the last few days and was causing my computer to be almost unresponsive.  Not one single process seemed to be the culprit, similar to the screenshots found here.

After running a virus scan, a post in the above forum twigged something to try:  I went to the Action Center and saw this seemingly innocuous notification.

I discovered I could "archive" the notification and once I did, Disk usage dropped to reasonable levels.  While I was glad to solve this, I wonder how Windows can possibly operate so poorly.