The conference takes place in the week following Microsoft's release of its next operating system, Windows 8, . So naturally, the conference will have a lot of material for programmers interested in developing applications for the updated platform, though Microsoft also promises plenty of content on Windows Azure, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 2012 as well.

This year's Build will also presumably include more on Web application development, as the company its MIX conference for Web developers in January.

On the blog post , Microsoft General Manager Tim O'Brien defended the decision to hold the conference at Microsoft's headquarters. "BUILD 2012 will be on the Microsoft campus, and I know what you're thinking ... if it's not in some cavernous convention hall, then it must be a dialed-down version of last year's event, etc. ... but don't be confused: this will be unlike anything we've held on our corporate campus in a long time," he wrote.

This will be the second developer conference under the name of Build. The first was held in September 2011, in Anaheim California, where Microsoft . That conference had 275 sessions, 351 speakers and approximately 5,000 attendees.

Formerly, the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) was the flagship Microsoft developer conference, though that name was jettisoned in favor of the Build moniker.