Windows 8.1: Boot to Desktop

To enable booting directly to the desktop in Windows 8.1, you need to do the following:

1. Right-click on the taskbar and select “Properties”.
2. Go to the “Navigation” tab.
3. Check the box next to “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in”.
4. Click “Apply” and then “OK”.

For advanced users, you can also enable this option through the Registry by setting the value of the “OpenAtLogon” key to “00000000”. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows + R key on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type “regedit” and press enter.
3. Navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage”.
4. Select or Create a DWORD “OpenAtLogon” with the value 00000000 (“OpenAtLogon”=dword:00000000)