I could go on about the things I strongly disliked (hated, frankly) about the changes to the desktop after I first installed 8.1. An enormous amount of customization was removed from the Appearance and general UI, the ability to change File Type icons and add custom context menu commands was removed [1], the Ribbon UI is the standard File Explorer toolbar and unchangeable without additional hacks [2], and more.

They dumbed down the desktop from a customization perspective and it was most annoying, and that's before the removal of the Start menu and addition of hotcorners and other Metro/Modern features.

[1] See Types for a tool that brings this feature back: http://izt.name/apps/types/

[2] OldNewExplorer for a regular toolbar: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170375-oldnewexplorer-make-y...