Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo for the first time in 25 years, setting the stage for a wave of products designed to cast the world's largest software maker in a new light. By revamping its logo, Microsoft is trying to signal that it has changed its thinking and its products to cater to people who are interacting with technology much differently than just a decade ago, let alone a quarter century. The makeover unveiled on Thursday marks the first time that Microsoft Corp. has revamped its logo since February 1987.

Microsoft believes a radical change to Windows will ensure that the company survives the technological upheaval. Windows 8, due to hit the market on October 26, displays software applications in a mosaic of tiles and has been engineered so it works on both touch-based tablets and traditional PCs. The company also is releasing its own Windows 8-powered tablet to compete against the iPad.

The redesign features the Microsoft name in a lighter, straight font called Segoe to replace the italic bold type used in the old standby. The new logo also includes the familiar red, blue, yellow and green colors used in the flag on Microsoft's Windows operating system, but the colors will be in a square box instead of the curvy template that has been in place for years. Those colour boxes evoke the tiles that will be central to Windows 8.

This is Microsoft's fifth logo since Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company 37 years ago. When it last changed its logo in 1987, Microsoft had been a publicly traded company for less than a year and boasted a market value of about $2 billion. It peaked at more than $600 million in 1999. Now, Microsoft's market value stands at $254 billion - less than half of Apple's market value of $623 billion.