paulmilbank: So we are not getting start menu or windowed apps with update 1? Those are in a future update?
Boot to desktop was already there, so not sure why the article made a big deal about it.
It is my understanding that the start menu stuff will appear in the "next" windows update. The word "next" may refer to the end of the year as update 2 to Windows 8.1, or may be in windows 9 due out (as I understand) somewhere around April next year (or around then).
I have not really been following the Build conference this year, so I may be out of date with things.
Personally, I don't really see the point of a start menu - there is already one in the bottom left corner and it appears again I one swipes in from the right. I would, however, think it would be nice if on the 'Apps' menu (accessed at the bottom of the start screen) we could put things into folders (instead of having each product title underlined it could be a folder) that can be either left expanded, or contracted.