As for 8.1 itself, it's definitely a step up for me. Just having a start button back and being able to set the start menu background to be the same as your desk

As for 8.1 itself, it's definitely a step up for me. Just having a start button back and being able to set the start menu background to be the same as your desktop background makes the whole experience far less claustrophobic. Yes! It's funny how different it feels. I wonder if it would feel even better if they made the background transparent with your actual desktop blurred out in the back. This way you never feel like you left your desktop to view the menu.