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
About a year ago, I went from Win7 to Win8.1 and did this - took about 30 seconds.
My ASUS Ultrabook boots to desktop in less than 20 seconds.
I very, very rarely use “Start/Tile” screen.
Yet I see so many posts complaining Win8.1 is horrible and they want their “desktop” back to normal. They sound like the perpetual whining class of racebaiters.