Seeking to capitalize on the popularity of the 2004 cult movie Napoleon Dynamite, Microsoft has screened a video spoof for software developers in which the film's celebrated anti-hero reports to work as a programmer for the world's largest software maker.

In a face-off between the two nerd icons, Jon Heder, the actor who plays Napoleon Dynamite, beats Gates in a slapping match to become the head of the software giant.

Gates is shown recruiting Heder's fictional character, after which they are seen together in ill-fitting brown suits on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington.

In the last scene of the video spoof, Gates is seen scurrying into the office of his boss, Napoleon Dynamite.

Microsoft often uses major events to poke fun at its competitive business culture and its hands-on chairman, Gates, who is the company's largest individual shareholder and the world's richest man with an estimated net worth of more than US$48 billion (HK$374.4 billion).

At the same conference this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft showed software developers preliminary versions of upgrades for its flagship Windows and Office programs. REUTERS