If you have a 4th gen cpu in the laptop keep windows 8 on it. I picked up a msi gt60 2od a few months back and wanted to do the same thing. I know windows 8 stock sucks, go over to stardocks.com and pick up start8 and modernmix and you will feel like your back in windows 7 all over again. since I picked both those up I have never been back to the stupid tile screen for anything.