There isn't much difference between 8 and 8.1. There are improvements, like booting to the desktop, but there is still no Start menu - and that means that you still need to download ClassicShell or an equivalent... and then the "boot to desktop" does not matter because those utilities do that for you.
Unless you like Win8 GUI, I would recommend installing Win7. Note also that some software does not work on Win8. Primarily that applies to industrial software, but you may find problems with anything that is not released in 2013. I have one laptop with Win8, and it will be downgraded to Win7 because it is unusable for my needs. Win8 is a release to skip. Perhaps Win9 will merge Win7 GUI and Win8 kernel improvements, with Metro being an installable option that stays out of your way unless you need it.
Oh, BTW, it's a pain to disable touch. I had to do it on a new laptop that was bought by someone else for business use. Touch on a laptop is confusing at best, and in many cases dangerous to your work. To disable touch you have to find and disable the driver that feeds touch events into the kernel.