Acquia Dev Desktop creates two 'sites' folders, 'default' and '*.dd' - Why, & What you should Know

Install XAMPP using PHP 5.6.x.
Edit the

Then edit the php.ini and my.ini to boost all settings for Drupal adequate, lengthen execution max and increase PHP max memory to at least 512M or more, with 1024M not being unreasonable.

Then edit the - C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts - file and add entries

# local domains - including xampp web site virtual hosts

127.0.0.1		localhost 

# example local site names

127.0.0.1		www.localsite0001.lcl
127.0.0.1		www.localsite0002.lcl
127.0.0.1		www.mysite.dd 

Add virtual host entries to httpd-vhosts.conf file.

Example virtual host entry
Note that the virtual hosts are OUTSIDE of the C:\xampp\ directory structure.

<VirtualHost www.localsite.lcl>
  DocumentRoot "C:\local_websites\www.localsite.lcl"
  ServerName www.localsite.lcl
  CustomLog "C:\local_websites\www.localsite.lcl\_logs_\access.log" combined
  ErrorLog "C:\local_websites\www.localsite.lcl\_logs_\error.log"
  <Directory "C:\local_websites\www.localsite.lcl">
	require all granted
    AllowOverride All
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Make sure your vhost runs with a plain index.html to verify server configuration.

Run the composer utility installation on your Windows machine, making it global, (in the PATH).

Download and extract the latest Drupal 8 core code into the docroot of the vhost.
Use the localhost/phpmyadmin utility to create the database for the Drupal website.
From the browser run {site}/install.php and enter database credentials when asked.
Turn of the send email option because you probably don't have a correctly configured local smtp daemon.

Visit the site, login as admin and check the reports.

Update the composer.json file in your site's docroot to something like the following.
Take notice that the Drupal core has been moved from the replace section to the require section.

Example composer.json for the vhost docroot.

{
    "name": "drupal/drupal",
    "description": "Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications.",
    "type": "project",
    "license": "GPL-2.0+",
    "require": {
        "composer/installers": "^1.0.21",
        "wikimedia/composer-merge-plugin": "~1.3",
        "drupal/core": "8.3.4",

        "drupal/address": "1.x-dev",
        "drupal/commerce": "2.x-dev",
        "commerceguys/intl": "v0.7.4",

        "drupal/admin_toolbar": "1.19.0",        
        "drupal/module_filter": "3.0.0"
    },
    "replace": {
    },
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "prefer-stable": true,
    "config": {
        "preferred-install": "dist",
        "autoloader-suffix": "Drupal8"
    },
    "extra": {
        "_readme": [
            "By default Drupal loads the autoloader from ./vendor/autoload.php.",
            "To change the autoloader you can edit ./autoload.php."
        ],
        "merge-plugin": {
            "include": [
                "core/composer.json"
            ],
            "recurse": false,
            "replace": false,
            "merge-extra": false
        }
    },
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\": "core/lib/Drupal/Core/Composer",
            "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\": "modules/composer_manager/src/Composer"
        }
    },
    "scripts": {
        "pre-autoload-dump": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::preAutoloadDump",
        "post-autoload-dump": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::ensureHtaccess",
        "post-package-install": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::vendorTestCodeCleanup",
        "post-package-update": "Drupal\\Core\\Composer\\Composer::vendorTestCodeCleanup",
        "drupal-rebuild": "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\Command::rebuild",
        "drupal-update": "Drupal\\composer_manager\\Composer\\Command::update"
    },
    "repositories": {
        "drupal": {
            "type": "composer",
            "url": "https://packages.drupal.org/8"
        }
    }
}

Run "composer install" in the vhost docroot and it will update the site to the configuration defined in the composer.json.

In your browser run {site}/update.php.

You will then have a complete up to date basic Drupal instance.

To use the Drupal 8 admin_toolbar and the module_filter modules, go to the admin extend page and enable them.

@Christopher James Francis Rodgers: I haven't used Windows since 2008, so I am probably not the right person to ask. But as far as I understand, it is possible to use Vagrant in VirtualBox on Windows. See this article for more info:

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2016/developing-virtualbox-and-vagrant...

But XAMPP will probably work just as well for you. What I really like with Vagrant is that I can spin up a fresh server very quickly, and delete it after I have finished my task.

Scotch Box is just one of many Vagrant distributions, you can read more about them here: https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/boxes.html

It is true that the latest Scotch Box 3.0 is a paid ("Pro") service, but the previous one (Scotch Box 2.5) comes with Ubuntu 14.04 and is still free.

So in short, probably start with XAMPP, since it has a lower entry level. But I would also encourage you to test Windows + VirtualBox + Vagrant, and see if it might work for your, and share your experience here.