Ballmer told an audience at the Washington, D.C., think tank the Brookings Institution that the company has learned about its responsibilities and will abide by the new rules.
He says Microsoft employees are now taught about legal responsibilities and educated on accountability to customers, and he denies charges by competitors that the company is already reneging on some of the terms of the settlement of the government's antitrust lawsuit.
"There is no question that when the antitrust lawsuit started, most of our industry did not race to support us," Ballmer says. "We learned that we needed to take a different perspective on being a good industry leader."