I am delighted to have found this forum. I have had malware and viruses before, on a Windows 95 machine. And I enjoyed the challenge of finding how they worked. But things have moved on.
With Windows 8 you'll be better off for long-term support, as Windows XP end-of-support is April 2014.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle
Hope you enjoy using MalwareTips and continue to learn your new OS, Windows 8.