[Karastorm]

I'd say give windows 8.1 a litle bit more chance if it's still not your cup of tea go and install 7. 7 is a lovely platform of windows and pretty damn easy to operate. Think of it as windows xp but with shiney new grapthics and a better ram/processor. If you really, really don't like 7 you can swich back to the native install of 8.1. Your new laptop should have a windows key on it somewhere ( the acctual device not it's software, usally found on the bottom near the battery or on the top next to the touchpad). Have fun with the new toy. Also on the first issue, the age of the computer really shouldn't effect the hdmi or vga recognisation. Try it with a vga cable to your t.v. If that fails it may be the grathpitcs card has started to fail or the prt it self is loose. These things happen with old tec. ( source for all this info is my self, I'm studing I.T and computing at univeristy and will hopefully get my BSCat a at second or first)