1) Boot into desktop mode. This was introduced in 8.1 and definitely better for my uses than having to open a desktop from the metro UI in 8.0.
2) Win-f, I used to use win-r quite a bit to run programs quickly. However, with the changes MS has made with caching, win-f is just as fast and saves me from having to remember the commands for system preferences and the like.
3) Powershell. Win 8 ships with powershell and it's actually decent.
4) I have personally found it to run faster than win 7 as it shifts more UI load to the graphics card.
