Hello and welcome!
This is a repost of a post I posted earlier on a different post with a similar issue.
My suggestions, tips, and other stuff...
1. Learn how to pin things to Start. The Start Screen is VERY easy to get configured when you figure out what to do. This is simple. Open File Explorer (the file folder icon) and go through and find things like Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Music Libraries (if you skipped over 7, this is a VERY handy feature if you have things like two video folders to consolidate them down into one view) and right click on them. Then, you will see, Pin to Start. Do that for all sorts of things other than libraries, like folders, program shortcuts, Recycle Bin, Computer, ect. Hit Start, go to the end, and click and drag the tiles around to how you'd like. I'd bet you might move them to the very left of the screen. To remove said tiles, right click them, then hit Unpin from Start at the bottom.
2. Uninstall the apps you don't want. This is dreadfully simple that most that decry Windows 8 don't seem to know. Right click on the app tiles, on the bottom of the screen you'll see an option to Uninstall. Hit that, and hit Uninstall again and that's it. But I'd suggest to keep the Weather, News, Finance, and maybe the Calendar or Mails apps as they're nice to have.
3. Choose program defaults. If you want IE 10 to ALWAYS open on the Desktop, you can do that by opening up IE on the Desktop, hit the Tools cog on the top right of the window, Internet Options, Programs, and set IE to always open on the Desktop. Do this for other programs like Photo Viewer over Photos, Windows Media Player (or VLC or whatever music player you'd like) over Music.
4. Learn the touchpad gestures. There are A LOT depending on the PC. My bet is that you have all so this won't be a problem. Swipe from the right side of the pad inward, opens the Charms. From the left, switches apps that are open. Swipe from the bottom of the pad opens the app command bar. Pinch to zoom to go to zoom in or out. On the Desktop, three finger gesture downwards minimizes all your open windows. Three up will show the window/app selector ribbon. Three left or right is the same as clicking the back or forth button in any program. You can probably also do a rotate gesture with Photo Viewer as well. Two fingers up or down will scroll. Pretty nifty!
Although I'm not sure on your particular laptop, please report back if the gestures do work on that.
5. Install Decor8. It will make the Start Screen look very cool!
6. Ideally, you'd want to uninstall all the crap and bloatware that comes on OEM PCs such as from Dell. Makes things a tad faster and improves boot time.
7. Open the Task Manager, hit the Startup tab, and disable all the items that don't deal with needed programs like idiotic power utilities. Leave things like the touchpad software enabled.
8. Open some apps, and use the touch gestures I said of earlier to navigate around. Just a simple type to search will start searching. No need to hunt down a search bar. The Settings charm is what is used to change app settings, sound, power, and screen brightness. This is used very often. Share will be used if you're in an app and want to email someone a link to a website, but this is ONLY within apps, not on the Desktop. Things work differently. To close an app, move the mouse pointer to the top of the screen, see the little hand icon, click, and just drag down. BAM! That simple. To change some settings like Start Screen colors, account picture, picture password, and some other things, open the Charms, hit Settings, and you'll see PC Settings at the bottom. PC Settings is a condensed down Control Panel of very commonly changed settings within Windows. Also, on the Desktop, opening the Settings charm will display a few things from the Control Panel, like Personalization and PC Info.
I think that is 8 simple tips/suggestions to use Windows 8. Wow.
And for a screenshot of a few Start Screens to show how to arrange things nicely...
Windows 8 was designed for touch, you have a touchpad that makes interacting with Windows 8 better than a standard three button mouse. Simply, learn to take advantage of the Start Screen, make things your own, and use the touch gestures of your new and shiny laptop and you'll quickly start liking things and won't feel so lost. Also, ask us questions, we don't bite. At least, not too hard.