For those who really need the start button back on 8, 8.1, there is a great little program called start8 from stardock for $5.
Puts a start button just like windows 7.
 

Hi, Jacob.  Welcome to the CW forums.  As previously mentioned, Classic Shell is free and has a large variety of options for modding Windows 8 to look and feel like previous version like Windows 7 and XP as well as additional functionality.  It is pretty cool and I have never had a problem with it.  The website is http://www.classicshell.net/  and although it is a free program, they do accept donations.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

well there goes 5 bucks...haha

Thanks for the link LRR. I will give it a go myself,
My issue with Windows 8.1 is I see no way to turn off the way the scroll bars fade away to invisible??   Why on earth did they do that? You have to go pecking around with the mouse to find the scroll bar at the bottom of Track view as example :(  
I wasted  time looking first in Sonars menu but then noticed it was global to all software. I then wasted another 20 minutes digging in all corners of 8.1 for some sort of option. I even loaded a few different themes.  Funny thing is, searching the net for a solution,  seems nobody has complained about this. Scroll bars are pretty important for moving around in almost all software, why make them disappear?  So I will try this Classic Shell. 

Maybe look here for those visual effects:
 

johnnyV
Thanks for the link LRR. I will give it a go myself,
My issue with Windows 8.1 is I see no way to turn off the way the scroll bars fade away to invisible??   Why on earth did they do that? You have to go pecking around with the mouse to find the scroll bar at the bottom of Track view as example :(  
I wasted  time looking first in Sonars menu but then noticed it was global to all software. I then wasted another 20 minutes digging in all corners of 8.1 for some sort of option. I even loaded a few different themes.  Funny thing is, searching the net for a solution,  seems nobody has complained about this. Scroll bars are pretty important for moving around in almost all software, why make them disappear?  So I will try this Classic Shell. 

Hey, Johnny.  You are not alone on that one.  I was getting frustrated with the "hard to find" scroll bar, but thought that it was something I altered myself.  (I do things like that to clean of the look of things.)  Now that you mentioned it, I realize that was not the case.  I guess we can change the Windows theme, but it's not pretty.  I'll peck around for a better way.
 
Thanks, Jim.  I checked out the Performance settings, but there is nothing to change the scroll bars.  Bummer.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

I have a feeling a lot of people will be switching to Windows 10 next year.  I've played with the preview version on a virtual machine on my desktop, and it's got all of the good things about Windows 8.1 combined with the familiar start button.  Plus they add virtual desktops which is something Linux/UNIX/Mac users have had for some time now.
 
I will wait for the final release before upgrading, but I'm definitely looking forward to Windows 10, and I think it will be as popular as Windows 7 and XP were

denverdrummer
...  Plus they add virtual desktops which is something Linux/UNIX/Mac users have had for some time now...

I am certainly going to upgrade to 10 after the dust settles.  I've been waiting for multiple desktops since 3.1...while I was in my crib.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

8+ has better multi-core management. Hence it is faster.
 
Boot faster: not an issue. Booting speed is not indicative of running performance. Once windows is booted it does little OS access, other than managing the pagefile, which should ALWAYS be set to system managed.
 
I have configured dozens of w8+ computers for clients, and family members. Rarely are the START-WALLs seen by anyone, other than during initial logon to click the DESKTOP tile.
 
Once installed:
install adobe reader and select it to be the default for PDF files
   and then disable the auto update service
select the windows media player as default
select the windows image util as the default
 
And then: disable ALL live tiles.
 
set windows updates to never check. Only manual: install hardware updates separately.
 
Review the scheduled tasks to disable ALL user experience stuff, and auto utils such as defrag,...
 
After installing drivers make sure NONE of them auto-check for updates: such as AMD CCC,...
 
And: disable ALL AMD services and startup options, if using any AMD bits.
 
And then: check ALL the services and startup options.
 
Use MSCONFIG, click the HIDE ALL MS services, to show other items.
 
Disable most of them:  Only one I have enabled it Logitech blue-toot service.
  Google, NI hardware,...  are all disabled.
 
MS services: Disable MS media player sharing service (what is the point of this?)
 
Taskbar: set to NEVER combine, and to SHOW ALL for the notification area.
 
Do NOT select to boot directly to the desktop. Any settings, such as removing the idiotic shadow for icons and fonts on the desktop, will not be honored.
 
Learn how to add shortcuts to the taskbar, and the desktop. Then create folders on the desktop for all the various tools: audio tools, audio programs, windows tools,....
 
Have ONLY the most often used shortcuts on the desktop.
 
NEVER NEVER NEVER  save ANY programs, or files, to the desktop.   
 
The desktop should be clean and quick. (I have clients who save EVERYTHING to the desktop and now cannot find anything.)
 
The desktop is not always included in backup software default settings. 
 
Learn all the w8 desktop screen mouse positions and quick clicks.
 
 

+1 for the configuration as documented by "YouDontHasToCallMe". I've done most of the same, through a bit of trial an error of course, but have not even thought about the O/S since doing so. Win10 sounds like it will be easier to use for Win7 and < users, but I'm pretty happy with what I have.