Welcome the forums. You are stuck my friend. There is absolutely no question in my mind: This was done intentionally. Earlier leaked builds do not have this problem at all. They are clearly still experimenting with the user interface, and this version has a nerfed desktop for developers. The goal of the BUILD conference is to get developers excited and ready to develop applications under the new programming model being introduced in C# and .NET under the AppStore. Microsoft must believe this will translate into highly usable apps when they launch Windows 8 onto tablets, phones, and other smart devices based on the ARM architecture. This is definitely a gimped version of Windows - providing just enough for developers to interact with the OS. Its quite annoying, but it is what it is. Wait until the next build where we may be able to see more improvements.
I am convinced this build was forked out of their main development branch just for the purpose of public development. They are clearly working on many elements of the operating system separately that may come together at a later date (Let's hope).