Display Windows Desktop Background on Start Screen Win8.1

The Start screen feels completely alien in Windows 8. Press the Windows key and you’re whooshed from your desktop to a completely different environment with a completely different background that’s separate from your desktop background. If you want to set a custom background for your Start screen, well, you can’t — you can only choose from among the handful of weird Start screen backgrounds that Steven Sinofsky decided to give you.
Windows 8.1 deals with this by providing an option to “Show my desktop background on Start.” It sounds like a small change, but using the same background on your Start screen makes it feel much less out of place. When you go to the Start screen, it will look as if the tiles (or list of installed apps) are hovering over your desktop rather than existing in a different environment.

 Below: example of desktop background set on start screen

 

  

To enable this option: right-click the taskbar, select Properties, click the Navigation tab, and check the “Show my desktop background on Start” option.

 Below: example of desktop background set on start screen

Boot directly to Desktop in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 includes an option that lets you boot to the desktop so you don’t have to see that tiled interface anymore. You don’t have to install third-party software or mess around with complex hacks involving the Task Scheduler just to boot to the desktop.

To enable this option, right-click the taskbar, select Properties, click the Navigation tab, and check the “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in” option.