Arducopter not being recognised

I am totally new to Arducopter and having a nightmare figuring out the installation
I have a Arducopter 2.8
Installed APM Planner 2 - the app itself did not lauch
uninstalled that …then
Installed Mission Planner Latest
… when “Install Firmware” I am not getting the expected choices in the port
just getting a COM4 …
its asking is this a Linux board …(how do i figure it out ?
I have windows 7 …should I shift to Linux … I have absolutely no idea of Linux