Boot to the Desktop with Windows 8.1

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m playing around with the Windows 8.1 Preview.

One of the other minor, yet significant, changes made, is the ability to boot directly to the desktop, rather than to the Start Screen we previously had to go through.

The location of this option isn’t obvious though, but easy enough to change.

Right Click on your Task Bar & Select ‘Properties‘

Select the ‘Navigation’ tab

Tick the ‘Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in‘ box and click ‘OK‘

(The ‘Show my desktop background on Start‘
is a nice touch also, and uses your standard Desktop wallpaper for the Start Screen, which lessons the disconnect between Desktop and Start modes that really hampered Windows 8)