The Metro Interface
The bad news is that you can't really disable as it is so integral to the operation of Windows 8. On a touchscreen computer it works quite well, but on ordinary screens (that is, 99% of them) it's a joke. But you don't have to use it any more than you need to. Click the Desktop tile or press the Windows key and you are back to something a bit more familiar, which is what most people do. However, given that you will see the thing quite a lot, you may want to remove the clutter of the dozens of tiles and give it a minimalist look. Simply right-click a tile and then from the bottom of the screen choose Unpin from Start. The applications aren't deleted in any way, just removed from the Start Screen. A few minutes of doing this and things will look a lot better.
Restore the Start Menu
Bizzarely, Windows 8 doesn't have a Start Menu, thus making it hard to find things. To put one back you will need a third party utility. There are plenty of these about. The best ones have to be paid for, but there are free ones as well. Some of them have peculiarities, but if you are missing the Start button badly then they are worth checking. A free, popular one is Classic Shell; find it at http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
Not So Charming
The corners of the screen on a Windows 8 have significance - move the mouse cursor into one and things happen. For instance, moving to the bottom right-hand corner will cause the so-called 'Charms' to be displayed. You'll probably find all sorts of things popping up all over the place during the normal course of using the computer and it's incredibly annoying. Fortunately, you can switch it all off using the Classic Shell program mentioned above.
Make the Desktop Usable
How do you find your various documents folders in Windows 8? The answer: with difficulty. There is no Start Menu and hence no options for Documents, Music and Photos. One solution is to use the Desktop; however, the default Desktop in Windows 8 is rather barren so it is necessary to first populate it. To do so, right-click on it and choose Personalise, followed by Change Desktop Icons. Place ticks against Computer, User's Files, Recycle Bin and Control Panel. Then click OK.
How Do I Shut it Down?
When Windows 8 was designed, it seems to have been assumed that we'd all be using tablets or laptops by the time it came out. There is no particular need to shutdown a tablet (this concept will be familiar to iPad users), so the option to do so is deliberately obscure in Windows 8. For the record, what you have to do is move the mouse into the right-hand corner of the screen so the Charms appear, click on the wheel-thing (Settings), click on Power and choose Shut Down (obvious, eh?). However, it is possible to create an icon on the Desktop to turn the computer off. To do so: right-click the Desktop and choose New Shortcut. In the box type C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /S /F /T 2 and click Next followed by Finish. If you don't like the look of the icon, right-click it and choose Properties. Click Change Icon. You will receive an error message - click OK to ignore it and carry on to choose an icon that you like the look of.
What's Happened to Skype?
If you're an existing Skype user, the initial signs are encouraging: there is a Skype button on the Windows 8 Metro screen so all you have to do is is enter your Skype ID and password and you are in business, right? Wrong. The first thing that will happen is that you will be prompted to download and install a new version. To do this you need a Microsoft ID; if you are a Hotmail user then you are okay, else you will need to create one. This involves the usual 20 questions and trying to guess the squiggley letters (glyphs) to "prove that you are not a robot". Bottom line: what should take a minute or two can quickly become half-an-hour and you end up with yet another email address and password to remember. But there is a better way: simply head to www.skype.com, click Downloads and click the 'Get Skype for Windows Desktop' button.
The Free, Hidden Anti-Virus Program
A Windows computer needs an anti-virus program. When you buy a new computer, it normally comes with a trial version of something, maybe McAfee for example. This will work for a couple of weeks but then you need to create Yet Another Account and pay for it with a credit card. Many will be happy to do so, but it's not necessary. It turns out that Windows 8 already has a perfectly good free anti-virus program included - they just don't go out of their way to tell you. It's from Microsoft themselves and called Windows Defender (it's a renamed version of their Security Essentials and not the old program of that name). All you need to do is uninstall the trial version of McAfee/Norton/whatever; you will eventually get a message in the Windows Action Center saying that no anti-virus program is running and it will let you activate Windows Defender. Job done!
Finally
If you don't like the look and feel of Windows 8, the tricks and techniques described here will give you the best of both worlds: a computer that looks like Windows 7 but with the performance and benefits of the latest technology.