Windows 8 is not a bad OS but I sure hate that Metro and no more start menu
There's a great free Start menu replacement for Windows 8 (that also optionally bypasses the Win 8 start screen), called Classic Shell. Makes Win 8 much less painful.
I'm a Windows developer who's found it increasingly difficult to write software that both supports the newer Windows versions AND still runs well under XP, with its now antiquated APIs. The changes in the Windows 8 WDK make it even more of a challenge, and I definitely sympathize with Access on this one.