Thank you for these replies.
To be clear, I haven't actually let it install, but it keeps trying. I didn't know about the 30-days to undo thing, either.
I'm a guy who still walks around with a dumb-phone. Windows 8 was a nightmare for a guy with fat fingers and a passionate hatred for touch-screen technology. and as with most technological advances in this day and age, I'm concerned about further loss of privacy.
If you google ubuntu or linux mint, you can find easy instructions on how to create a startup CD or USB stick. Once you create a startup disk, you can boot to the device and try out linux on your system WITHOUT actually installing it on your computer. It is a very lite, efficient and effective OS.
After testing it out, it is very easy to install from the test session. If you have any issues once it is installed, you can google search and find forums and sites with solutions to your problem - sometimes it requires opening up the "terminal" (equivalent of windows command prompt) and cut and paste a few lines of commands into the console.
The main thing you have to remember with the terminal is that if you enter commands that requires administrative privileges, you will need to put "sudo " before the command. It will then ask for your password, and any subsequent commands in the terminal session will be covered.
There is a software installation area where you can locate software, download and install it, although occasionally you may need to install from the terminal.
Once you are setup, you don't have to worry about most of the problems you will have with windows - viruses, malware will be the last thing on your mind and you can focus on using your computer for what it is meant to do.
Install Google Chrome for video streaming services (Firefox is pre-installed). Install VLC for movie file/dvd playing, although the Movie Player that comes with the OS will usually work fine.
Transmission Bit Torrent Client comes pre-installed.
If you still need Windows for anything (besides the latest games..) then instal VirtualBox and install an instance of Windows (I'm currently using Windows 10, only need it for a citrix application to login to my work's servers)
