A Windows Opening at Microsoft : Computers: Today marks the premiere of the new ‘NT’ version, which is designed to extend the operating software’s dominance beyond the desktop PC.

With fanfare befitting a product that is supposed to become the standard for a whole generation of computers, Microsoft Corp. today will introduce a software system called Windows NT.

For most personal computer customers, the new software won’t mean much. Windows NT isn’t designed for mainstream PCs but rather for high-powered machines using next-generation computer chips, and it is primarily intended to manage large networks of PCs. Just to run NT requires triple the memory that comes with most standard PCs.

For the computer industry, though, and for the corporate computer managers who still purchase most of its products, Windows NT is big news indeed. The software represents Microsoft’s attempt to extend its dominance beyond the desktop PC, and its success or failure will help determine the competitive balance of the computer industry for years to come.

Monday’s rollout, at the Comdex computer show in Atlanta, is an introduction only in the most formal sense. Thousands of test copies of Windows NT (the NT stands for New Technology) have been circulating for many months, and Microsoft won’t actually begin selling the product until June 30 at the earliest.

Like the DOS and Windows software that made Microsoft famous, Windows NT is an operating system, controlling basic computer functions and serving as the host for applications programs--such as word processors and spreadsheets--that perform particular tasks.

But unlike DOS and Windows, NT is what some refer to as an “industrial strength” operating system. It boasts sophisticated networking features, the ability to perform many tasks at once and advanced security that protects against system failures as well as unwanted invasions from hackers.

It will be used by companies that are looking to replace expensive mainframes and minicomputers with networks of cheap desktop machines--a process often referred to as “downsizing.”

NT is far from alone in this market. The venerable Unix operating system is growing increasingly popular in the office, and it should be further strengthened by a recent agreement limiting the number of different Unix versions. Just as important, the key Unix company is now owned by Novell, the leader in networking software.

Microsoft also faces a real threat from International Business Machines Corp., whose OS/2 software is gaining a following after a slow start. Some believe it’s Microsoft that’s playing catch-up for a change.

“What information systems manager in their right mind would trust their applications to a first-generation operating system?” asks David Coursey, editor of the PC Letter, referring to the tendency of all major new software products to have bugs.

“Unix will continue to grow,” Coursey adds. Even Microsoft is actively downplaying expectations on Windows NT, predicting it will sell 1 million copies in the first year, compared to the million copies a month of Windows that were sold at its peak.

Yet Windows NT has some big advantages. It will run all DOS and Windows applications software, and it will run on computers using several different types of advanced computer chips.

While DOS and Windows operate only on machines using Intel Corp. chips such as the 386, 486 and the new Pentium, Windows NT will also run on PCs with high-powered Alpha chips from Digital Equipment Corp. and MIPS chips from Silicon Graphics Inc.

That’s appealing for many customers, because it gives them more choice in buying computer hardware.

And, perhaps most important of all, it has Microsoft’s name and marketing muscle behind it and thus the implicit promise of future improvements. In fact, Windows NT in some respects is only the predecessor to an even more powerful operating system called Cairo. That will probably appear sometime in 1995.

For the regular PC user, meanwhile, the real next-generation operating system will probably emerge sometime next year in the form of a Microsoft product currently code-named Chicago.