I also had good results with Win8 and the Picaxe PE. I'm using an Ebay generic CP2102 USB/Serial adapter with Goeytex's inverter mod. Installation was a two-step process. After I plugged the adapter in, Win8 loaded a driver, but it wouldn't work until I opened a box in the taskbar asking to download a 210x USB modem driver. It installed displaying "Vista/Win7 drivers", but works fine. The adapter connects faster and more reliably than it did with Vista.