If you have multiple monitors, you'll be happy to know that Microsoft is doing more to make your life easy. Windows 8 will finally enable desktop backgrounds that properly span multiple monitors. You can also fine-tune how the taskbar behaves. For instance, you can set up your taskbar so that the Internet Explorer icon moves from monitor to monitor as you move the app, meaning that the icon will always be right below the application window.

Some changes are purely under the hood, but should make significant differences in how snappy the OS feels. For example, apps should take up less memory, thanks to changes that handle RAM more efficiently. The memory manager uses a new "page combining" technique that will collapse identical 4K memory pages in use by multiple applications into a single page, until they are altered. If one of the apps changes its version of the memory page, it splits off into another page. This means that multiple applications loading the same resources will no longer duplicate data in memory.

Microsoft isn't done talking about features for enthusiasts, business, and IT. The focus here at the BUILD conference is on the dramatically new Start Screen and Metro applications and their development, but we'll hear more about PC fundamentals and features for power users over the coming months.

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