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You can hide under a bridge, row a boat to the middle of the oceanor wedge yourself under the sofa, cover your ears and then hum loudly.But get near a newspaper, radio, television or computer retailer todayand you will experience the multimillion-dollar hype surrounding thelaunch of Windows 95.

Microsoft Corp. is spending about $300 million to trumpet thearrival of Windows 95, an upgraded operating system, the software thattells the machinery inside your personal computer what to do. Marketingmavens believe the all-out media blitz is the largest productadvertising campaign ever. Print ads – from both Microsoft andincreasingly giddy computer retailers – have been inescapable over thepast few weeks.

Twelve million dollars was spent simply securing the rights to atheme song for the hoopla, the opening chords of the Rolling Stones hit"Start Me Up." The music will accompany Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates ashe boots up the new program in a ceremony at company headquarters inRedmond, Wash., to be broadcast today live via satellite at launchevents and retail outlets nationwide.

And don't think you can avoid the party simply by leaving town. InLondon, Brits will be treated to a free copy of the Times newspapercourtesy of Microsoft, which is paying for a print run of 1.5 million,more than double the paper's average daily circulation. In Toronto, a300-foot Windows 95 banner has been draped down the CN Tower, and NewYork's Empire State Building will be lit up in red, yellow and green –the colors of Microsoft's logo.

For its money, Microsoft has succeeded in generating a buzz thathas landed the new product on the cover of national news magazines andmade it a topic of conversation even among computer illiterates. Butsome analysts caution that Microsoft has run expectations to perilouslyhigh levels.

"I think the hype has been excessive," said Philip Kotler, aprofessor of marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management atNorthwestern University in Evanston, Ill. "If there are bugs in thisprogram, or if the extra performance doesn't deliver substantialbenefits, this could be a disaster."

Microsoft, however, anticipates that it will recoup its upfrontoutlays – and then some. Roughly 100 million computer users now rely onearlier versions of Windows, and the company projects that 20 percentwill upgrade to Windows 95 – which retails for $90 – within a year.

Analysts expect another quarter of a billion dollars in sales fromadd-on software titles that can take advantage of the increased speedand enhanced capabilities of Windows 95.

While Microsoft expects the campaign to pay off handsomely, pasthigh-profile product launches prove there are risks. Indeed, priceyadvertising campaigns have heralded some grand and very embarrassingfailures. Recall Ford Motor Co.'s Edsel, a car model that bombed sothoroughly that its very name has become a synonym for catastrophicproduct ideas – and cost the company about $250 million.

In the 1950s, DuPont Co. lost about $250 million developing andmarketing Corfam, a synthetic leather substitute for shoes thatcustomers snubbed in droves.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. made a $325 million mistake with Premier,its smokeless cigarette.

More recently, Walt Disney Co. faced a public relations disasterlast year when glitches in its "Lion King" CD-ROM ruined Christmas forscores of kids.

But Microsoft is unlikely to suffer a similar fate because it tookprecautions, such as delaying its launch date and sending out a fewhundred thousand copies to testers across the country.

Analysts think this diligence will pay off. "The extraordinarilyextensive testing they did makes a show-stopping bug a pretty unlikelyoccurrence," said Chuck Stegman, a vice president at Dataquest Inc., ahigh-tech market research firm in California. "Someone would havestumbled on it already."

But those customers expecting Windows 95 to be a greattechnological leap forward may be disappointed. International BusinessMachines Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. already have operating systems onthe market that sport the features – greater memory management, theability to perform several tasks at once and enhanced user-friendliness– now being hailed in Windows 95.

Big Blue has made some effort to counter Microsoft's mediaonslaught with ads that feature the names of companies that have reliedon its OS/2 system for years. Yesterday, at corporate headquarters inArmonk, N.Y., IBM officials reiterated the virtues of its owntime-tested product, and tried to ignore the festivities.

"Microsoft is delivering the same features we delivered seven yearsago," said company spokesman Tim Breuer. "We're moving on business asusual here."

There was no mad rush to obtain Windows 95 at the Office Depot onNew Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring early this morning. About a dozencustomers were on hand when the store opened its doors at midnight, anda few more trickled in after that. By 12:30 a.m., the half dozenemployees had the store pretty much to themselves.

"I'm just trying to stay awake," said one employee.

Nelson Riollano, a student at the University of Maryland, rode tothe store on his bicycle from his home nearby to get his copy of theprogram. "I certainly thought there would be more people here," saidRiollano. "There's been so much publicity, I figured if I didn't get itnow, I'd have to wait until October or November."Staff writer Steve Vogel and researcher Richard Drezen contributed tothis report.