Having a lot of trouble with Unity for Android

It seems that whatever I do it is not right and I do not get any straight answers on how to fix it.

I am on Unity 4.2 (for some reason, Windows 8.1 does not recognize the newest version and it always ends up with a fatal error at startup), I have the new Android SDK, installed the Java portion, and acquired the Unity Remote on my Android device and still nothing is going on when it is plugged into my computer.

Also, in ‘building’ the game itself I get errors as it tries finding an android folder which I created, but it totally bypasses.

Can someone please explain to me in layman’s terms on how to install it and what is going wrong?
Do I need a different GUI for the setup? (I have linux on the side if needed)

Please, someone help me with this.

Just build the APK file at copy paste it to the phone in windows explorer. Then if no errors go from there. Or transfer it with dropbox to the phone if you cant get the drivers working.