Homestead is probably the easiest way to get a dev envionment set up
http://laravel.com/docs/4.2/homestead
However, if that doesn't help, what problems/confusion are you having?
Yes, as homestead uses nginx - just homestead configures it all for you.
I would look for a tutorial for getting nginx/windows 8 up and running with php and then install composer.
Or post what you tried/what problems you are having
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