The world's largest software company said that it was not planning any public events to observe the transition, though the change would be marked by internal events.
NEW YORK: After living his teenage dream of seeing personal computers on every desk, 52-year-old Bill Gates is leaving the job of running the world's largest software company Microsoft on Friday.
Being at the helm for more than 25 years, Gates would be serving his last full-time day at the software colossus on Friday.
The world's third richest man would be dedicating his time for charity works with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was launched in 2000.
Gates would continue as Chairman of Microsoft and would be involved in select projects based on direction from Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. Ray Ozzie is taking on the chief software architect role and Craig Mundie as chief research and strategy officer position.
He became the Chairman in June 1981.
A Harvard University dropout, Gates had first set up Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen in New Mexico. The biggest break for the company which was later moved to Seattle, came in 1980, when it inked an agreement with IBM to develop an operating system for computers.
The operating system later came to be known as MS-DOS.
His legacy is interlinked to the evolution of personal computers and as experts say, he had the vision to visualise his future.
Gates had the vision to see this future and he possessed the competitive drive to force his technologies into monopoly positions in the marketplace.
A recent blog post by Chairman and CEO of research firm Forrester George Colony said, "Bill (Gates) had the vision to see this future and he possessed the competitive drive to force his technologies into monopoly positions in the marketplace.
"He has not been an innovator in technology -- in polite circles we would call him derivative, in less genteel terms we would call him a plagiarist. Gates has been a business innovator, not a technology innovator."
Going by his own admission, Gates' future work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would include finding new vaccines and also providing finance for projects in the developing world.
Gates continued to remain the world's richest person for 13 years since 1995. However, in the latest Forbes magazine's richest people list, he is at the third place behind American legendary investor Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim.
However, Microsoft has been facing a few setbacks in recent times including the failed bid for internet major Yahoo!. The software giant had offered to buy Yahoo! for about 44.6 billion dollars.
Further, the European Commission had imposed a hefty fine of 899 million euros on Microsoft for non-compliance with anti-trust rulings.
Gates is stepping down from the daily work at Microsoft as the company is facing intense competition from different corners including the rising dominance of Google in the internet search and advertising arena.
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