by Ina Fried
September 5, 2008 11:17 AM PDT

It's been about 18 hours since Microsoft started running its Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad and the negative comments continue to pour in. But Microsoft's Brad Brooks looks at it this way: Even if people aren't talking kindly about the new Windows ad, at least people are talking about Windows. "It's got a lot of people talking and that's exactly what we wanted," said Brooks, Microsoft's vice president of consumer marketing for Windows.

For too long, he said, Microsoft has been silent. And as a result, the only dialogue has come from competitors, namely Apple. Brooks acknowledges it will take more than just ads to improve Windows' image. The key, he said, are the substantive changes the company is making, such as trying to improve the experience for buying Windows PCs as well as getting machines up and running. Here, Microsoft appears to be taking a page or two from Apple's playbook.

Microsoft is setting up store-within-a-store locations at major retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy, a concept that Apple employed at both Best Buy and CompUSA. Microsoft is also hiring between 100 and 200 "Windows Gurus"--Microsoft employees that will be positioned at retail stores to help customers learn more about the operating system. Like Apple's Geniuses, Windows Gurus won't be paid commissions. Instead, Brooks said, they will be compensated in large part based on customer satisfaction.

The software maker also has a new engineering team that Brooks said is working "hand in glove" with computer makers to reduce the time it takes Windows PCs to boot, wake from sleep and to initially get up and running out of the box. Systems that have gone through Microsoft's new process will start showing up this fall from all the major computer makers and get highlighted on Microsoft's Web site.