A federal appeals court reversed the breakup of Microsoft Thursday and ordered that a new judge decide the landmark case. It was a major victory for the embattled software maker. The appeals court ruled that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson improperly conducted himself in the case, leaving himself open to the appearance he was biased against Microsoft. ``We vacate the judgment on remedies, because the trial judge engaged in impermissible ex parte contacts by holding secret interviews with members of the media and made numerous offensive comments about Microsoft officials in public statements outside of the courtroom, giving rise to an appearance of partiality,'' the court said.

``Although we find no evidence of actual bias, we hold that the actions of the trial judge seriously tainted the proceedings before the District Court and called into question the integrity of the judicial process,'' the court added. The ruling was unanimous, by a 7-0 vote. Jackson ruled Microsoft had engaged in anti-competitive practices by packaging its Windows operating system with its Explorer Web browser. He concluded the company was an illegal monopoly and ordered the software giant broken into two as a penalty. By vacating the ruling, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court but ordered that a different judge handle the decision on how to punish Microsoft.