If you expect Win8.1 to look like Win7 you're in for a shock. About all they did was add a small "Windows tile" where the Start Button was, which takes you back into Metro instead of popping up a Start Menu. They also moved more config options from Control Panel to Metro.

You can "boot to desktop" but that's minor. it just means the desktop comes up after your Metro-based logon.

All in all, 8.1 remains just as big of a "Wha?" to a user coming to it from previous versions as 8 was.