Interesting approach. Might be challenging though. I usually can't find half the settings I'm looking for on a German OS. But it sounds like a good way of associating things/actions you already know with new words.
Can't really give to much advice on learning German since I grew up with it, but I reckon that its not that difficult to get the basics...but getting to the point where on blends in in Germany will be a mission because people who learned it later in life get caught out by the "der/die/das" thing and consequently don't blend.
btw the German Asterix & Obelix {sp?} is much nicer than the English ones imo. Once you got a hang of the basics, maybe give those a shot.

Good luck.
ETA: M$ downloads work over local-only adsl, so why not just download it? I assume its somewhere on the MS site.