Well I've tried this trick for booting to Desktop but it's still taking over 10 seconds to switch out of the Start page. It's much quicker just to press the Desktop button on the Start page. Perhaps my desktop PC will be quicker. When the new release of Windows 8 Preview becomes available in early June I may just install it on my desktop machine as dual boot. I was a little reluctant to do that before trying dual boot on my laptop. Thanks anyway Drew and Randy for your help.
Rachel

No worries, always a pleasure.
Drew