Despite customer grousing over Software Assurance, numerous patent lawsuits and countless legal-settlement payouts, Microsoft is expected by company watchers to report for Q4 2004 yet another record-breaking quarter. Analysts are predicting Microsoft will report earnings of 29 cents a share for Q4 (up from 23 cents a year ago). And sales are expected to be around $9 billion for the quarter, up 11 percent from the year-ago quarter. We'll see if they were right, after the bell.