Not quite what you see on the Metro Start screen then and no reason to click anything. Given the instruction received with it, you swipe in from the right and go to the Search box. (I have a touch screen).

I can sometimes get the right-hand charm list to appear using the cursor on the Desktop but its a bit hit and miss depending on its status at the time. Slightly easier on the Start Screen but not guaranteed.

Even on Vista and 7 what you describe isn't as intuitive to the vast majority of home users and in fact office staff as you think. And you don't just start typing into nothing. We both know rather more than them, and even I always just type into the URL bar to search for anything.

In any case, on Win 7 and earlier just hovering over (? or do you click) he Start button and the start menu comes up with Control Panel and several other useful options normally in the right-hand split menu. No search needed.

In a 10 hour day I'm sure you don't carry out any extra work with W8 than you would with W7.

You can't physically type any quicker in a spreadsheet or word processing app. If you save 2 seconds when starting an app then use that time to look at your coffee.