If possible you should grab XP and use it for older games like FL.
I had no problems with Win 8.1 so far but I recommend Tunicles advice because the recovery feature of Win 8.1 really sucks.
But still you can use a Win 7 DVD to fix boot problems.
Worked for me several time while the Win 8.1 DVD could not fix errors.
No idea why M$ messed this up.