Ok, let's clear some things up, and know
@Vorgarag I mean no offense if I seem so.
First: Because some things don't seem needed, it isn't so. The OS (any OS) is not mainly for the user but its the "middle man" for software including games, to work on a computer and so, some services are needed directly by and for the user, and some services are needed by the Software/Game to work.
Let's see as an example the cryptographic service you mentioned. That service is used by software and not directly by the user, to encrypt and decrypt data, but also provide secure user authentication (what we call username/password) that is either saved locally or transmitted. So by switching this off, you may make your PC less secure, and some software that uses Microsoft CryptoAPI won't work. My point is, what may seem "useless" can be very useful in a lot of cases when we examine it deeper.
Now in your case, tho I am pretty sure the game doesn't freeze because it checks for the internet, as that check is a couple of lines of codes that have no impact on performance, if you believe so, all you need to do is disable the network interfaces by pressing start, typing
network connections and in the windows that will open right click on main (or all) interfaces and select disable. When you do that, windows will report no network in all apps that may ask. IF in the future you may need internet, just go back and enable it.
Your game probably freezing because as you said your system may be overloaded by other software you use or have used in the past or because the game is a bit demanding and your hardware (needs a good CPU, 16 GB of ram (tho can run at 8 on minimum, and semi-decent graphic card) may have a hard time running it, tho you don't tell us the laptop specs and I can be wrong about the last one. I would set the game on minimum settings and check if that fixes things a bit.
Now I will tell you this about the services in general and in a simple way since as you say don't know a lot, and do what you want with it. Think of a service as a client in a cafe and the CPU is the person that makes the coffee (the barista). As long as no client asks for coffee, you can have 1 or 100 clients in the shop, and the barista will be sitting and doing nothing. Same for the services, you can have 1 or 100 running at the same time, as long as they are not needed they take ZERO time from the CPU, always speaking about the services that come with Windows and not 3rd party. Its not that simple but you get the idea I hope. I won't go into more detail as it may get confusing, but services should be the last thing to check for low performance.
Other than that I doubt if there is a window here (or anywhere) with the network removed completely so either disable the interfaces as I showed you above or sadly google if and how you can do it.
Hope it helped.
