Windows 8 will be becoming a lot nicer. They are bringing back the Start Menu, so if you're staying on top of your patches and have Windows 8.1 installed (if not, get it from the Store app after you install your system updates), that comes very soon (if not tomorrow) to my knowledge. Otherwise, install ClassicShell and that should releave much of your Windows 8 pains :)
Tomorrow's round of patches should include some bugfixes, some mouse and keyboard friendly improvements and less memory usage.