I just want my icons back. I don’t care what they do internally, but I want it to look like Windows 7 when I start up my computer.
All you have to do is boot directly to desktop and all your icons are there just like always.
Personally I boot to desktop with icons hidden, and if I need an icon, I just click on the start button and use the tiles as my icons.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/fl/boot-to-desktop-windows-8.htm
Try http://www.classicshell.net/ and you will have your icons back.