Mugged by Microsoft

Microsoft--it’s just not a corporate brand, it’s a way of life. After all, the company’s logos already are splayed across your computer, automobile and television set. Now, Bill Gates wants to get into your coffee mug.

Borders bookstores are selling 12-ounce packages of Windows 98 coffee beans. The retailer began carrying the beans in all of its 209 stores earlier this month and the coffee has “been selling really well,” said Mary Jean Raab, vice president of retail operations for Borders Group Inc.

She declined to release specific sales numbers. The dark-roast blend, which sells for $6.99 a bag, claims to give computer-savvy drinkers “a different kind of buzz,” according to the packaging.

Uh huh. Just like the jazz CD--also pulled together by Borders--that came with the purchase of some manuals that walked readers through the installation of the software giant’s latest operating system.

The disk, featuring an assortment of cool tracks by such acts as Manhattan Transfer and Dave Brubeck, was billed as “music to listen to while installing the software.” What’s next? Windows NT shampoo? A joint project with Nike to create the Explorer hiking boot?

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.