David, VMware Player or Virtual Box very hard to setup?
I thought I had deleted my reply because I did not want duplicate replies. Guess I was a bit late.
To answer your question, no it is not hard. There are tutorials to do that.
However, after reading your original post, I wonder what is it that you do not like about Win 8.
If it is the new interface that you are not familiar with, then using the 3rd party start menu as suggested to you may ease the pain until you get yourself familiarized with the new system.
I have a Win 8.1 and I use Start8.
It looks and works just like Win 7, and you can use the computer just like you were on a Win 7 computer.