I HATE the Metro Desktop of full Server 2012

Well you are in luck... so do I and this is how i got around it. Three ways really.

TIPS to working within metro
Windows key+X to get a power users menu where the start menu is normally
Windows key or Ctrl+Esc will load the metro start
Windows key+Q will open all programs and a search area
Windows key+W will open a Search tab
Windows key+R will open  RUN tab
Windows key+E will open  My Computer
Windows key+I will open Settings/control panel
Windows key+Break will open System/device manager/remote settings/ advanced system settings
this is where I got this list, not all of them work as per the site

To get to the metro start menu put your mouse in the lower left corner and click the menu when it appears
you should be able to get to IE and Explorer from here. If you cannot seem to get the metro start menu to load with the hot corner you can always press Ctrl+Esc to get it to load. Once it is loaded you have to right-click some of the blue area to get another tab to show itself so you can go to All Programs.

With either of these two products #1 STARTMenu8 or  #2 ClassicShell. I like them both but I will let you decide. Startmenu8 looks better and shows the shutdown and logoff buttons and is customizable but you cannot add custom menu items and even with the "start with windows" checked it fails to auto start. While Classicshell is highly customizable and lets you add custom items, I cannot get the shutdown or logoff buttons to show up.(FREE SOFTWARE.. GOTTA LOVE IT).

Download and install the startmenu package of your choice or both if you really want to. Their websites explain how to use this software very well, so I will not go into it.

Or OPTION #3 (FREE) you can download my pre-built shortcuts and add them to your taskbar.
Simply download and unzip the start.zip and place it on on the root of C: Drive. Then right-click on the taskbar, add toolbar/new and point to the start folder full of shortcuts you just place on the C: drive. This will create a shortcut called Start (by the clock) in the taskbar that points the folder named C:\Start.  If you wish to add more short cuts you simply create them and place them within the start folder structure where you want them.