LS on Windows 7 has it's flaws. some of the standard tray icons won't update as they should and some mdi apps would display multiple task tiles (which could actually be welcome for some).
Windows 8 is not that much different from Windows 7. you'd need to do some research on how replacing the shell although the method probably did not change. you might be interested in this:
http://forums.litestep.info/viewtopic.php?id=307
http://forums.litestep.info/viewtopic.php?id=131
http://lsp.litestep.info/index.php?page=index;item=173
on that theme: no, you'd have to convert that yourself ... this theme looked already horribly outdated ten years ago. use jDesk, xPopup, xTasks and xTray. then find yourself a VWM module, i suggest rabidVWM. all the rest (shortcuts, system info, wharf) can be done with Rainmeter (i think v.14 is the last version that will also run as LS module).
my suggestion for Windows 8 would not to run LS, but Emerge Desktop http://www.emergedesktop.org/ as it is still under development, for the core elements like desktop, menu, tasks and tray. use the newest Rainmeter as a standalone app for everything else.
(you could even use LS together with elements of ED, as the ED "modules" are EXEs, for the tray for example)
