I don't even have a pc back then but I remember ppl were saying stay to windows 7 if you want to play your game, since windows 8 are too laggy for games
so people with certain hardware had no choice but to install 8.1 unless they wanted bad support on win7, and people with old hardware got left behind as per usual
Windows 8 had THE BEST start menu search. It found exactly what you wanted every single time, even searching for a submenu of a control panel side tab and it will get you the thing you need instantly.
like maybe consider not making it a bureaucratic torture test to allow someone to develop for your new platform with literally 0 current third party apps