As this thread has wandered a bit I'll help it wander more.

I'm not a big fan of Wndows 8 especially having to log on as I am the only one here. To get around that try:
"On the desktop screen (not metro), right click on the bottom left corner and you will get a menu. Select Command Prompt Administrator mode.
On the command prompt, type "control userpasswords2" without the quotes. You will get a menu where you can untick "Users must use a password to use this computer". Press OK, and it will ask you for the username and password to use by default. Once you enter the details and reboot, it will no longer ask you to login."
It will still ask for a login if your laptop hibernates and you want to reactivate.
I will wait for 8.1 (which I think is end of Sept) and see it I need to look at Classic Shell
I also wonder about all this 'get a new OS because XP will no longer be supported' rubbish. Xp's been out for so many years now, how much support does it need ?? It's still going to work so why spend the money ?