Gnome Shell and WinKey paging

[LOUDlife]

For whatever reason I seam to be going back and forth between the gnome shell with the favorites bar on the side, and the version with the Applications and Places in the top right. I don't particularly care which I use, but I would like one to constantly come up when I log in. Only thing I have done is ran updates and it seems to be one for a few days and then switch again. How can I just set it to one, or even get the Shell back with the favorites bar because I currently do not have it.

Also, is there any way to display on the pages on the work space in this version of gnome (with the Applications and places)? In the other version I simply hit the Win key and it pages, I like that a lot.