I don't have anyone else in my house that may use my system, so I'm not worried about anyone getting in. Sometimes I do maintenance that requires 2, 3, up to 6 reboots in a row, and I want the system to go straight to the desktop. I do have accounts in systems elsewhere, where of course I don't use that feature. But when I am working on those systems, I set it up like this one to bypass the lockscreen and log in automatically, until I'm done, then I change it back. I always tell my customers, remove passwords or I'll do it for them, because of this same issue: I put the passwords back in when I am done. I can do this in Windows XP, Vista and 7, but where Windows 8 is different, it uses your Skydrive account. I've made local accounts in all of my machines in case of no internet connection.
I understand why people got skittish about Gadgets, some of them turned out to be horrendous viruses. The only ones I am interested in are those that monitor my system, like the one that comes with Aida64.
With Windows 8 you can NOT shut off the UAC, but you can put it down to zero. I'm totally unimpressed with this "Metro" stuff.
Windows 8, as a desktop, is superior in speed and security to Windows 7- I'm actually impressed. But trying to put the Metro stuff in there confuses the OS, and confuses the user. Apple made iOS for Tablet and Phone Only applications, Microsoft needs to do the same thing, not combine the two into one OS. And now the Store on Windows 8 is being populated with the same kind of worthless spamgames that you find in iOS, Metro gives these developers an opening into Windows they never had before. It's not really good for business, and it's not good for people who need the Desktop to work the way it worked before.
The Moment Microsoft totally removes the Desktop from any future OS, is the day I will move to Apple for good.
But those things are preferences, except for access to the desktop with a valid Start Menu. As long as there is a Desktop in Windows and apps that use it while in that mode, I will put my start menu back in. See, Vista squished all the links in to the start menu in one little area, but still allowed you to expand out if you wanted. Windows 7 gave you no choice. But just because the Windows 7 Start menu is inconvenient, does not mean it is something you can just delete from the OS, it's a requirement.
What Microsoft and Apple too forget, is that there are people who still do not have any kind of internet connection. Or, situations where the system must not be connected, a stand alone system. It's not really rare, either. I set up Informational Databases onto machines that stand alone in a reference library, and they cannot ever be connected, for Privacy's sake.
I haven't checked - Is there any version of Windows 8 that has the Metro interface totally gone? The last disk I got has a number of different versions on it, but I've just been using the Pro and Pro with Media Center. If there is a version with Metro gone, that's the version I want. In a way, I'm with Metro apps the way you are with Sidebar gadgets - I hate em. I have a bunch of them, but I do not find them useful, and when promising usefulness, they stop way short.
