Yes, it works just fine with Windows 8, I have that OS and that game. Windows 8.1 is okay too.
Reinstall Java, it isn't installed by default so this might be the first time but that's okay: http://www.java.com/...va.com/en/
If that didn't fix it then do the following:
Open a file explorer window, type %appdata% in the address box and press enter. Now you'll need to enable viewing hidden files if it's not enabled already, there's a checkbox for that at the top of the file explorer window. Select the 'Roaming' folder. Now you'll see a folder called.minecraft - rename it. Now run Minecraft again and it'll download and reinstall it for you. If you had any saved maps or custom textures then copy them over from the original folder which you just renamed into the new.minecraft folder which will have appeared when you ran the game. If all goes well then you can delete the renamed folder, you no longer need it. If you haven't played the game yet so have no maps or texture packs then you can just delete the.minecraft folder to begin with as that'll all you need to do, no copying or renaming anything is necessary in this situation.
