Microsoft Corp

The other day I had a vision of the death of Microsoft. It came just hours after I placed a curse upon the huge company for, oh, the ten-thousandth time. The occasion for my latest malediction was the discovery that Microsoft had dispensed with the "backward compatibility" of its Word application. As a result, a document created in, say, Office 2007 and e-mailed for my perusal won't open in the Word 97 program on my home computer as anything but gibberish. Microsoft's goal obviously is to coerce me to upgrade to the new version of Office, which would cost me as much as $400, take up an enormous amount of my hard drive space and undoubtedly consume obscene quantities of my computing power.

Video game players with less-than-dexterous thumbs will soon stand a fighting chance, with Microsoft Corp. on Monday promising a new method for controlling the action with full body movements. The Redmond, Wash., software giant unveiled a technology for its Xbox 360 video game console that, as early as next year, could let people toss aside the baffling 12-button controller. Instead, the system's camera and sound sensors detect movement of faces and body joints as well as voice commands.

Microsoft Corp. is looking for an answer to Apple Inc.'s genius. The Redmond, Wash., software giant plans to open a series of retail stores to show off its goods. It's taking a page from the playbook of its scrappy computer-industry rival, which has boosted sales by opening Apple stores across the globe and stocking its Genius Bar with tech experts. Details about Microsoft's plans for the stores were still scarce Friday.

As an opening gambit, Microsoft's campaign for its new Bing search engine accuses Google of causing global economic ruin. That's cheeky. The 60-second commercial titled "Manifesto" (JWT Worldwide), which began airing last week, opens with scenes of random YouTube nuttiness (videos of Perez Hilton, the keyboard-playing cat, OK Go's treadmill shtick, etc.). Then the mood darkens. The narrator says: "While everyone was searching, there was bailing. . . .

Microsoft Corp. announced the departure of several executives Thursday, among them a Silicon Valley veteran recruited to help fix its unprofitable Web business and one in charge of marketing Windows Vista. It also announced the promotion of more than a dozen other executives. The changes come two weeks after Microsoft offered to buy Web portal and search competitor Yahoo Inc.

Microsoft Corp. said Monday it would begin selling Web-based programs to smaller customers, countering a challenge from Google Inc. The company would begin testing online editions of its Exchange and SharePoint Server programs for companies with fewer than 5,000 employees, Senior Vice President Chris Capossela said. Blockbuster Inc. and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. are already customers for a service designed for larger companies, he said.

. -- When Microsoft Corp. makes its annual presentation to investors and analysts here today, executives will be preaching the value of patience to stockholders who are nervous about the world's largest software company's online prospects. Executives plan to hold up the entertainment and devices division -- home of the Xbox game console, Zune media player and cellphone software -- as a prime example of persistence rewarded.

Microsoft Corp.'s rivals renewed their call Friday for European Union regulators to act against what they say are illegal practices, alleging that the new Vista operating system is the company's attempt to extend its monopoly to the Internet. They asked the European Commission to make a decision "as fast as possible" on a complaint they filed in February.

Under threat of new multimillion-dollar fines, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it had signed up its first licensee for a program to help servers work with the Windows operating platform. The European Commission had threatened the software giant with new daily fines of $4 million last week, alleging that it ignored a March 2004 antitrust order that said Microsoft overcharged rivals for "complete and accurate" documentation.

Microsoft Corp. faces a probe into a complaint by an anonymous company that it is in violation of terms of a 2001 antitrust settlement with the U.S. government, a Department of Justice attorney said during a court hearing Tuesday. Aaron D. Hoag, a trial attorney for the Justice Department's antitrust division, told a federal judge in Washington that an unnamed software maker complained that Microsoft was violating terms of the agreement.