[Astro_Bot]

I installed Win8.1 Pro the day it came out as an upgrade to Win8, which was on top of WinXP, but it's in a virtual machine as my main OS is Linux. The upgrade took about 1.5 hours all up and was fairly painless as upgrades go.

By default, the Metro interface is still the default - you have to search for the option to make the "desktop" the default. It's possible to make the Metro background your desktop, which, in effect, turns the Metro interface into a transparent overlay menu - something I find conceptually easier to deal with. The Metro "menu" interface is accessed by normal right click from the Start button, while a "utility" menu is accessed by left click. I don't see a need to add a third-party menu for my use, but then Win8.1 isn't my main OS. The relevant options are in Control Panel > Appearance and Personalisation > Taskbar and Navigation.

You can still edit what's on the Metro screen, so it's possible to beat it into a better form and make it work as a menu overlay. save for those apps having no desktop presentation mode - i.e. they're fullscreen Metro style only - I don't use any of those, though - all the applications I use work in the desktop.

As mentioned, desktop icons are back, which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. You have to find in Control Panel, and enable, that option for the old "default" icons: Control Panel > Appearance and Personalisation > Personalisation (and then on the left). Icons can be re-named, as before. Otherwise, you can left-click on the desktop and create shortcuts for any particular application. Shortcuts can be pinned to the task bar as before.

Win8.1 is a definite improvement over Win8, but I agree it won't impress the general public as the improvements are hard to access for the everyday user and don't go quite far enough, IMHO.

The main improvment of Win8 (and Win8.1) is under the hood - it's faster and less resource intensive than Win7 - I also have Win7 in another virtual machine, and have done a side-by-side comparison.

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All of this is familiar to me ...

Linux went though all this 3 years ago with release of the Gnome 3.x desktop interface that eschewed a traditional menu for an "overlay" mode designed for touchscreens (amongst other changes). Unlike Windows, however, Linux offers several desktops to choose from, and many annoyed Gnome users simply installed a different desktop ... including me.