Taskbar is what I use, but the OP specifically mentioned putting apps out of view. Unless you auto-hide the taskbar, things pinned to the taskbar are still visible. The Metro start screen remains the comparable method to adding something to the Start menu.

And calling people idiots because their UI choices aren't yours? What are you, 12?

So either place them on the desktop (ugly and annoying, I know) or pin them to the taskbar (quick and efficient). There are plenty of options for ways to access your frequently-used programs. I mentioned the metro start page as the closest analogy to the start menu.

I spend 95% of my Win8 time on the desktop, which does have the taskbar. As in Windows 7, my most frequently used apps are pinned to the taskbar for quick access via shortcuts rather than mouse or start menu. Works like a charm. I didn't mention the taskbar in my original comment because OP said he wanted to place these links somewhere that could be hidden. You can hide the taskbar, but the closest comparison to the start menu is the metro start screen, so I mentioned that rather than the taskbar.

"Personally I keep a list of the top 10 applications I launch (Chrome, Visual Studio, a screen capture utility, etc) right at the very top level of the "Start" menu so I can get to them quickly"

So put them on the metro page. Functions in a similar way: press the windows key and you'll see all your pinned apps for quick and easy access as well as be able to just type the name of any given app you may want.

Prior to the release of Win8, I was highly, highly critical. Thought it was the dumbest thing MS had ever done. As someone who went through the pain of WinME, that's saying a lot. But I've gotten used to it. Still spend almost all my time in the desktop, but I've grown to like the metro apps for things like easy access for my kids. I still think MS made a mistake by not at least making a full-desktop-mode option, but I can live with Metro and find it beneficial in some ways. I certainly haven'y been hampered by it at all.

Something about a giant black monolith full of stars.

The customer wanted the employees to copy data from her phone to her phone. Looking at that data didn't have to happen. Copying pictures from her phone to a personal phone - particularly naked pictures - certainly violated trust and evidently some laws. Going on to redistribute those stolen pictures to other people without the knowledge of the original person pushes it even farther. The part that's nuts in all this is you thinking their actions were okay.

Finally, someone who gets it!

"Not likely but possible."

No, very possible, even very likely. The very fact that we don't know about it, that they haven't publicly admitted the existence and regular use of these saucers, is proof of their existence and their effectiveness. Why, just last night aunt Bertha saw one of them things hovering over the local Wal-Mart. It then went to the Piggly Wiggly and some strange creature came out of the store carrying a six pack. The government knows. They just aren't telling you. Which is how you can know that they know.

No, a battleship blew up their communications array so home base doesn't know where the alien pow's are.

You assume that the space craft is something other than the alien. What if it wasn't a ship but an actual alien that we mistook as spaceships? What if the lights are their means of communicating with one another?

And someone will make some lame tv show about the whole thing.

It's an ugly planet; a bug planet. A planet hostile to life as we know it.

Oh wait, I may have the wrong thing in mind...

Because every time there's a plane crash, a conspiracy is somewhere behind it.

Except the price went down, not up, so in your scenario, investors either got more shares, or spent less money.

Have you used Win8? Does your opinion differ? I tested the consumer preview and was astonished that Microsoft would consider this a serious OS for most people. They have made a terrible mistake, as most reviewers note.

I'm not someone to bash Microsoft whenever they come up. They've had good software and bad software, made good moves and bad moves, and Windows 8 strikes me as solidly in the bad move, bad idea column. I keep thinking they must have something else up their sleeve.