Win 8's tiles kill the desire for customizing.  

To boot directly to the desktop in Windows 8:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/make-windows-8-boot-straight-to-the-desktop/#. 

If you're running Windows 8.1:

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57591261-285/how-to-boot-directly-to-the-desktop-in-windows-8.1/ 

Just in case......

I for one still customize my desktop. Not with just my own windowblinds but also use others as I switch the look. I am mostly on Win 7 but win 8 can be customized just fine using Stardock products. 

I agree it appears to show not as many people are downloading customizing graphics. Saying that I also believe that with win 8 being on everything you purchase now from computers, tablets, etc that this is what people are using and I'm sure most don't even know anything else can change what they are seeing. Also the generation for a few years now have been using phones with nothing but tiles and icons on them. They are use to seeing what they see and very used to it. I don't believe they are even interested in any change from what they see and use as it's all they know. 

Also believe that in the past with Windows they have some awful looking desktops. So people would search around to see if there was something else available. That brought them to Stardock and other programs that would change the look of the desktop. As I mentioned they are now growing up with tiles on all their devices and believe that is the way things have to be. It's a different world now with all that is available and all of it has basically the same looking things on them. There was a time that only one device was available, the computer so lets see what we can change. Now people have several different devices so why change anything as they basically all look the same.

Until it's impossible to customize my desktop I will continue to do so. Just my look on the situation.

Yes, both are on my agenda for this year.

That is very good to hear Island Dog. 

I never run a 'naked' desktop... not ever.  MS never got the UI right in any Windows iteration yet, and I doubt they ever will.  Thank heavens for Stardock, because without their customisation tools I would have gone mental years ago.  While MS added something good in Aero Glass, the boring black and white start menu in Vista and Win 7 just wasn't pleasing to the eye after a few days of use, thus Windowblinds became the most essential app on my PC, along with IconPackager, CursorFX and Winstep Xtreme. 

In using these apps with matching skins [eg, Steampunk] I was never bored or displeased with my desktop, and with the great variety of skins, one can change the desktop regularly and experiment with different elements to create many spectacular and interesting themes. So for mine, skins are essential to a more contented and satisfying PC use.

That will be because of your infatuation with Win 8.

There's nothing inherently 'wrong' with 7 ...which is why so many modern WBs are not a hell of a lot dissimilar to the default look.

But 8 is about as appealing as genital warts....

Dusting it!

Well I tried, unfortunately a discussion about desktop customization does not seem to be relevant in the one place I thought it would. 

No, it was some lousy, rotten lowlife skank bastards who, had I accepted it, would have stolen data and performed nefarious actions on my rig.  My mother got caught by it about 3 months back, because it looks all official and genuine, and the best way for me to remedy the issue for her was to purge her machine and do a complete rewrite of Windows.  There was no way of getting rid of it conventionally because it disabled System Restore, Safe Mode and Acronis. 

It was hooked into the Registry in dozens of places, and I no sooner deleted/disabled an entry, it would self-replicate and write several more. She wanted to replace the HDD with a SSD anyway, so what I did was disconnect the OS drive, slip in the SSD and performed a total clean install.  I then put the old drive in my XP box, and being there were no registry entries, etc, I wiped it clean and set it up for a storage drive.

Had I not known what happened to my mother I may well have been duped also, but there's a giveaway that confirms it's phony... in properties it states the publisher isn't Sun Microsystems, so that's when you reject the 'update' and block the site, which I read is in Russia somewhere.

Chemical castration is too good for them... when a butter knife 'll get the job done for a fraction of the price.

As for skinning my Win 8.1 setup, I'm using Karen's Steampunk WB, the matching Winstep theme, a gear CFX and British Library/Steampunk icons I got from devart, with an appropriate wallpaper depicting a crowd boarding a steam train.  If I get my lazy arse into gear later I might post a screenie to show it off.

BTW, the mowing didn't and won't get done today... maybe not tomorrow, either.  Went to bed but tossed and turned the whole time, and I hurt like a bitch all over /am worse for wear.  There's always Thursday, Friday... and it ain't going anywhere unless somebody's goats escape their paddock.

Awww, I was just messing a little John, something I rarely do. But my desktop PC runs CursorFX, IconPackager, ObjectDock v1.9 and Windowblinds, that's it. Don't find anything else really useful because I am constantly designing skins. This is on Windows 7 though, on Windows 8 I have the same stuff and of course Start 8.

On Win7 I run Iconpackager, Windowblinds, Objectdock, Dreams (but only once in a while cause it sends my cpu into a tizzy) Don't do Fences because I like a clean screen without all that stuff muckin' it up. I also use Rainledar, Rainmeter and SMX although the last two aren't strictly SD. All in all i'm a happy camper.