octave on windows 8

[Francis Poulin]

Hello,

I am teaching a course where I am encouraging my students to use Octave, 
instead of the more popular commercial alternative.  I have a student who told 
me that he installed it on his PC that runs windows 8 but it crashes every time 
there is an error in the code, which when learning a language happens a lot.  
Unfortunately I don't have the details of what he installed.  

Do you have any instructions on how to install octave 3.6.4 on windows 8 that 
avoids the crashes (that the student mentioned others have observed)?  

Sorry to be vague but any advice would be helpful.

Cheers, Francis