By Stewart Meagher
07 October 2008, 9:51 AM

STEVE BALLMER, Microsoft's shy and retiring head honcho, has weasled his way out of an embarrassing court appearance by supplying a written deposition.

The Chief Executive Officer, who is paid a (not so) small fortune to have his finger on the pulse of everything that goes on at the Seattle-based software giant, has pretty much denied any knowledge whatsoever of the company's Vista Capable program which has become the subject of a class action suit.

The plaintiffs in the suit are maintaining that computers labelled as 'Vista Capable' were in fact barely capable of running even the most basic form of the much-maligned operating system. Ballmer, not normally a man to have his head in sand, states in his written deposition, "I was not involved in any of the operational decisions about the Windows Vista Capable program.

I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program. I was not involved in formulating any marketing strategy or any public messenging surrounding Windows Vista Capable program. To the best of my recollection, I did not have any unique knowledge of, nor did I have any unique involvement in any decisions regarding the Windows Vista Capable program."