Unfortunately Microsoft tried to force a new UI on people, in the misguided
belief that desktop PC users should get used to something that was
simplified for use by touch screens instead of having two different UIs that
the user can select. Not surprisingly, the people who were familiar with
pre-Win8 and could "drive" that instinctively, rebelled at the gross changes
to the start menu - especially the "mess of tiles" interface where an icon
for a given program changes place from day to day, instead of being in a
fixed location on the desktop.

open the start menu.
Grab any launcher and drag it or a link to it to the desktop.
Depending on whoknowswhat, you may have to press the alt key before
releasing the mouse button. Try shift, alt, ctrl to see your options.
The icon you're dragging will tell you what to expect.
I have program launchers on my desktop and more in a window created for
that purpose.
Right click on any start menu list item and pin to start or taskbar
if you like.

It's very easy to ignore the start menu.
I uninstall all the tiles on the start menu that will let me and unpin
the rest so they don't use any resources.

My start menu looks almost exactly like the window of launchers that I
created.

Windows may be your enemy, but the start menu doesn't have to be an issue.