As far as windows 8 goes, I was fully using it myself a few days ago.
Memory leaks seem to be worse on it as do client crashes with no error message.... however if you are still certain you want it to work can you give us a little more info please such as your computer spec?
I ran into several issues myself, first one was software (java, NET Framework, directx, graphics drivers, SSD drivers inc controllers)
second one was the installation had to be in admin mode too, not just the launch, then third the nvidia drivers currently have issues if you use any settings other than 'applicationg controlled'.
After all this when the game did eventually come on, it set my graphics to the very low setting on 800x600 resolution as standard. It might be worth seeing if you can manually change the settings file to your old settings although I have no idea where the file is located I am afraid.