Ted, I was serious the other day... what Lounge, where?
I, took a look @ 1 of those add-on Start Menu things... that was tossed darn quickly... silly, unnecessary, distracting nuisance!! As far as Pinning goes... use Quick Launch to have anything you want handy & Pin stuff to the Taskbar.
You can, also, go to Start simply by hitting the Win Key, @ any time, from anywhere.
Remember, if, you have live Apps but, not open or using 1, they (plural) can (all) be viewed, manipulated & closed via the 'App Bar along the upper left edge. There, too, they can be Snapped... this is really cool; can put 1 or 2 on a panel, left & or right & have them on screen @ the same time as Desktop...try it. Sometimes may want/prefer this rather than the Drag to the Bottom thing.
Joe, you can 'jump' through Start, straight to Desktop. I think this is originally form Ted but, here's how:
Doing this will make it so, upon Boot, goes directly to Desktop, although, Start will or may
show, momentarily, 1st, the need to click Desktop tile or hit WinKey + D is gone.
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs\StartUp
Right click blank area and choose New->Shortcut
Copy and Paste this
%windir%\explorer.exe
shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}
in the box that says "Type the location of the item:
Click next
Give it a name. ie "Show Desktop" or “Go to Desktop” or _____
Reboot.
Cheers,
Drew