Immediately after I reinstalled 8.10, I noticed my Windows keys behaving badly. I actually forgot that this was something I had to deal with before. It boiled down to changing the default behavior of the Windows key in the keyboard layout "Other Settings" panel to map it to the "Super" key. Viola. I can now assign it at will. Here's a link to a write-up about it: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/windowsmodifier/