For some bad reason Microsoft decided to remove all standard desktop icons besides the Recyle bin.
It is easy to create shortcuts to each single disk using create shortcut method.
But I would like to have the computer icon too.
I guess there will be an increased demand to create useful shortcuts on Windows 8 Servers Desktop, because the metro surface 'on the backside of your screen' is just impractical.
Edit: The right click popup menu from desktop looks like this: