Why should we have to manually make the damn OS boot to the desktop?
The desktop should just be the frickin' desktop! If I wanted social networking crap, I'd use a web browser to go to a social networking site.
You can remove the stuffty social Networking stuff, that's what I did ASAP.
They're shooting a update called windows blue, I decided, "this is bullstuff im downgrading" as soon as I saw it.
It removed legacy start menu code.
Legacy menu is still there all you needed to do is right click on the hidden start button.

The new start menu is basically the normal start menu made into fullscreen, apps are completely optional, you can download programs like always from the internet like you used to, charms bar is quite useful if you know how to use it, you can make a shortcut to "My Computer" as its not included anymore.
Also the boot speed is really impressive, I can get my comp to boot quite fast, and even faster depending on your specs, same with general performance.
Any more just search on your choice of search engine Windows 8 Hidden Features.
Also various developers are already working on new Visual Styles of the GUI's, currently it only exist for 64bit Win 8.