Starting from Windows 8, Microsoft decided to get rid of the Start Menu in order to promote the new Start Screen. By default, Windows 8 PC boots into the Start Screen where you can select various programs and apps to launch by tapping or clicking on their respective tiles. This is very annoying and confusing for the older Windows users who are used to seeing the desktop when Windows finished booting up. Even my little 8 year old cousin Tessa was sad and puzzled when she could not find any of her usual icons that show up on Windows desktop. If you want to make Windows 8 or 8.1 boot straight into the desktop mode, then you can use the small and free utility called Cry Boot to Desktop from the Cry Media developers.
You can get the Cry Boot to Desktop from the Cry Media website. The download is a ZIP archive which contains the portable version of the program. You can extract the contents of the archive into a folder and run Cry Boot to Desktop.exe from there.
The application is very simple and offers you options to toggle on or off the registry settings which can let you boot Windows straight into the desktop mode. You can click on the activate button to make Windows boot into the desktop mode. Then you have to reboot your PC in order for the settings to take effect. If at any later time you want to remove the settings created by this software, then you can launch Cry Boot to Desktop again and this time click on the deactivate button.
Verdict: You can make Windows 8 or 8.1 boot into the desktop mode by manually making changes to Windows registry, but the free Cry Boot to Desktop program makes it very easy to make the changes.
You can download Cry Boot to Desktop from http://crymedia.de/?cry=downloads.