New 1946 Install & Win 8

[EJGr.Ost_Caspar]

It sounds, as you did all correctly. Congrats!

EDIT: Once you are into reading, I strongly suggest you to read the guides and manuals that have come with the patches since 4.09. Some new features were released with them and need some attention, if you want to master them.

I got a bit irritated by this part:

someone here suggested playing around with the stock install for awhile before getting into the patches.

I think, by patches, you/he meant here the mods, because the patches (up to 4.11.1 as the most actual currently) are part of the stock game.
Just make sure, you make a copy of your running game, before you apply mods.

And... have fun, of course!