But the message rang hollow - after all, how could Gates claim that Microsoft was not overly dominant, and then convincingly say that a delay in the release of the new system would cause economic chaos in the computer industry?Moreover, many of the acquiescent executives who appeared with him that day were from the companies that it is claimed were subjected to Microsoft's anti-competitive practices, including Intel, Compaq and America Online. The criticism may be of the mob variety, but when Gillen praises Microsoft, he gets letters accusing him of being in Gates's pocket.In response to a growing realisation that the company was in trouble, Microsoft did what it has always done - it wheeled out Gates to present a humbler public image - but now the old tactic looked staged to a sceptical press, and the company seemed powerless to deflect the growing criticism. "Whenever I write a column that is critical of Microsoft," says Paul Gillen, editor of Computer- world, "invariably a half-dozen `attaboy' letters will come out of the woodwork." "Way to go", "Stick it to 'em", "evil empire", and "they suck". Whether he deserves this hostility is a moot point - Gates-bashing is endemic, even though four in five Americans say they admire both the chairman and the company. Witness the ill-concealed glee that accompanied Gate's pie-in-the-face mishap in Brussels last spring, or type "Microsoft sucks" into a Web search engine and see how many sites that come up that depict Gates being shot, poked and revealed as a devil.

Use of the word "unfair" jumped sevenfold, "anti-competitive" and "arrogant" rose by a factor of 10."Instead of going to the Department of Justice and negotiating a settlement, they pour acid on an open wound," noted a leading PC executive. "Americans don't like to see their government maligned, especially when the government seems to be doing little more than protecting its sacred right - competition."With the federal lawsuit, Microsoft-bashing has become a national pastime and the company's public profile akin to that of a big tobacco company. The defiant stance was a disaster.Applied Communications, a Silicon Valley PR firm, tracked use of seven different adjectives describing Microsoft in hundreds of publications from early 1997 to April 1998. Gates's number two, Steve Ballmer, declared that the US attorney general, Janet Reno, could "go to heck", while other minions said that government lawyers were "completely uninformed" about software and that the company could package anything, "even a ham sandwich", with its operating software if it wished to. He published The Road Ahead and syndicated a weekly newspaper column, cultivated friendships with Hollywood moguls and Rupert Murdoch, and initiated the 24-hour cable and Internet news service, MSNBC. In spring 1997, he hosted a "CEO Summit" and retained an experienced Hollywood PR to polish up his image.However, as the US government's investigation of Microsoft intensified, the press began to focus on the case and the voices of its critics, who had long called the company predatory and ruthless in crushing all rivals, started to be heard.Microsoft's PR machinery began to show signs of collapse. In the first eight months of 1995, for instance, Windows 95 received 239 mentions in the Wall Street Journal and press enquiries numbered around 1,000 daily.In short, Microsoft controlled the agenda, along with 85 per cent of the world's PC operating software.But the public's impression of Microsoft then began to sour.

It's as much a marketing company as a great technology company. They've been savvy in doling out Bill Gates's co-operation to get cover stories at strategic moments for their marketing purposes."It is said that Gates, who has always understood his role as the embodiment of the brand, devotes 15 per cent of his time to media affairs, and for years the machine never missed a beat. There were already protests from rival software makers, a dwindling population of Apple users and the technologically clued-up, who maintained that rival operating systems were technically superior, but the press and public was largely deaf to them. At that time, Microsoft's vast propaganda machine was working at its peerless best, and the company was regarded as one of the most expertly promoted of all time. Every story was tracked and any negative press followed up on to help reporters see things differently. To some minds, the company's brilliance in creating news were there was none, and in ensuring Microsoft stayed in the headlines, was critical."Smart PR is one reason Microsoft has been such a success," says David Kirkpatrick, of Fortune magazine "It's a brilliant blend. With around 20,000 employees, it employed an army of between 400 and 500 PRs, most of them at Waggener Edstrom, a firm that once encouraged employees to quote from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.The flacks managed relations with individual news outlets and reporters, some of whom could count on direct access to Gates and would be invited for weekends at his holiday home.