So I made the leap.  I am using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview as my primary laptop.  Given that I use a number of Hyper-V VMs, I am really diggin the Client Hyper-V feature of Windows 8.  No more reboot, boot to my Win2k8R2 base OS, spin up my VHD.  Now I can spin it up right from my primary client OS on my laptop.  But I digress…

I use the following settings for my Start screen color scheme:

…which gives me the following start screen look:

By default, when I switched to the Desktop, I had the Aero theme configured:

For me, the default Aero theme with with the the blue color hints and the rounded buttons with gradients is a bit too much of a contrast.  Have no fear, Windows 8 has all sorts of knobs to suit your preferences.  I reconfigured my desktop settings to look like this:

Notice the flat buttons and color scheme that matches my Start screen personalization a bit better.  The transition to the desktop just feels smoother for me this way.  Plus I kind like the “retro metro” look it gives the desktop experience.  A couple people who’ve seen this have asked me “Is that a newer build of Windows 8?”  Nope, I just changed the defaults.  If you like it, here’s how to do it yourself:

Right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize from the context menu:

Select the Windows Basic theme:

Select Windows Color:

Select the color that closely matches your start screen and move the color intensity to match your preference:

Save changes.

There you go.  You now have a desktop experience that, in my opinion, blends a little better with the start screen and overall Metro look and feel.  As they say, Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).

@devkeydet