Will try it out as a short-term workaround ...

Herbie

However while I don't like Metro, it's a single click to get to the desktop.

For some reason I don't want to get involved in hacks to make Windows work the way I want to. For one, it forces me to accept the changes that I eventually need to accept, no matter how counter-productive they are in practice. Second, any hacks could interfere with future changes that MS makes. For instance, what happens to those hacks if MS ever decides to restore some of the previous functionality? Would they conflict?

EDIT: Actually the second instance of explorer does not exit. It opened a Windows Explorer window, but the 1st one was behind some other windows so I didn't see it. So with the proposed hack you have an explorer window open. So either way you need one click to get to a "clean" desktop. Maybe a tweak could be to run an empty batch file or something instead of explorer.

1 hour ago, BitFlipper wrote

For some reason I don't want to get involved in hacks to make Windows work the way I want to. 

Yes, I've used hacks and 3rd-party apps/add-ons in the past to 'fix' changes to MS products, only to have them balked by an automatic windows update. No big drama for a one-off PC, but I *once* made the mistake of entrusting such a thing to a network, and then bricked the entire thing with an MS update roll-out - finding myself in the managers office explaining (quite rightly) why I allowed such a disaster to happen.

Microsoft took this away.  They have no alternative.  That is probably my only major gripe about the Start screen.

I could do as you suggest, but I'm the kind of guy who never reorganizes his Start screen.  I have almost never reorganized icons on all the phones, tablets, desktops, etc. that I've owned.  Wherever my icons fall, there they shall lie.

1 hour ago, bondsbw wrote

@contextfree`: I want recently used applications in my Start screen.

Dynamic tile groups would be a neat feature for the Start screen. MRU apps/docs, notifications.

1 day ago, Dr Herbie wrote

Will try it out as a short-term workaround ...

 

I'm using Start8, it has an option to boot to the desktop with only 1 explorer running (I believe Classic Shell will do the same thing).  Of course, this puts a start menu back whereas you may not want that portion.

21 hours ago, BitFlipper wrote

For some reason I don't want to get involved in hacks to make Windows work the way I want to.

I used to be like that, but after using Windows 8 I thought, why shouldn't I be able to get Windows to run exactly like I want it to?  Why shouldn't my computing experience be customizable to my preferences (and to each their own)?  The direction of companies disallowing you to do anything with the OS is a bad direction IMO (tablets are soooo locked down in what your allowed or not allowed to do).