And there is no way to easily get the old interface back.
... use ClassicShell & have all your tools as portable applications with you, work as usual with shortcut keys - this way 8.1 runs like 8 runs like 7 runs like XP runs like all of them
We are getting off-topic but I should point out that ClassicShell is a 3rd party tool and running your tools as portable apps is a hack as well. My complaint is about plain vanilla Windows 8 as it comes out of the box and as most people will try to use it.
FWIW, I use rainmeter and emerge desktop myself but that's not really Windows 8 either.