Assuming you have 8.1 installed, open the taskbar properties. From there you will find options to do the following:
Boot to desktop and not start screen
Opening the start screen will default to apps first rather than the tiles interfact
You can also select to order the apps by desktop apps first, not ModernUI apps.
This (functionality wise) restores most of the Start menu, most noticeably missing most frequent applications (although I think you can sort them by most used).
If you *really* want a classic start menu, then you can pick from a few alternatives - one such example is Start8. But there's quite a few, so you may want to try a few out to see what suites you best.