Seinfeld, Gates 'connect' with regular folks in new Microsoft ad

The four and half minute extended skit can be seen below. It's been reported that Microsoft has agreed to pay Seinfeld approximately $10 million for his role in the ads, which are said to be just one facet of a massive $300 million advertising campaign on the part of the Redmond-based software giant aimed at cleaning up the tarnished image of Windows Vista.

In an email to employees recently, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer also revealed that the company will be changing the way it works with hardware vendors to mimic the experience offered by Apple in which there will be "absolutely no compromises."

"In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving," Ballmer wrote in the email. "Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience."

To this end, Microsoft said it plans to deploy Gurus — essentially clones of Apple Geniuses — to approximately 155 Best Buy and Circuit City retails by the end of the year.