Windows 95 Spurs Price Upgrade in Touchstone Shares : Computers: O.C. software firm’s stock nearly doubles after program that checks compatibility with new system is introduced.

The price of Touchstone Software Corp.’s stock has nearly doubled in the last two days after the company introduced a program to help computer users prepare their machines for a Microsoft Corp.’s long-awaited Windows 95 operating system.

Touchstone will ship its new program at the end of this month, weeks before the Windows 95 release date of Aug. 24.

As a powerful successor to Microsoft’s best-selling Windows program for personal computers, Windows 95 will demand more memory and disk space. Touchstone’s program will help users check whether their machines can run Windows 95, and help them decide whether to buy upgrades for their machines.

Windows 95 has been plagued by delays and problems, and Touchstone President C. Shannon Jenkins said some of Wall Street’s reaction to Touchstone’s product may be related to concerns about Microsoft’s operating system.

Although Touchstone is not releasing any sales projections for the product, the attention is a welcome surprise.

“When we put out our announcement [last week] it seemed fairly routine to us,” Jenkins said. “Then there’s this big reaction to it, which gives you some idea of the attention that everybody’s giving to Windows 95.”

Touchstone’s stock rose 33%, or $2.50 a share, to close at $10.13 Wednesday on volume of 643,600 shares in Nasdaq trading. On Tuesday, the stock also climbed 33% to close at $7.63 a share on volume of 332,000 shares.

Other Orange County companies are also hoping to capitalize on Microsoft’s pending release. Irvine-based Netsoft, for example, this week introduced six products designed to make it easier for computers running Windows 95 to communicate with more powerful mid-range and mainframe computers via office networks.

And Microsoft itself is promoting its new product from its office in Irvine, where it has 25 sales employees.

Touchstone earned $800,000 on sales of $7.2 million last year, a healthy increase from income of $300,000 on sales of $4.9 million in 1993.

Jenkins and Chairman Larry W. Dingus were part of a group of five sales and computer specialists who founded Touchstone in 1982, and initially sold computer programs to AT&T; and other communications companies.

But the market for those programs, which were based on the Unix operating system for larger computers, didn’t grow at the rate the company had expected. In 1989, the company introduced a diagnostic program for personal computers, and sales in that area have driven its growth since, Jenkins said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Touchstone Takes Off

Touchstone Software’s stock soared Tuesday and Wednesday with the introduction of software to help computer users upgrade to the Windows 95 program. Monthly closing prices this year: Jan.: $0.94 Wednesday’s close: $10.13

Touchstone Software Corp. at a Glance * Headquarters: Huntington Beach * Founded: 1982 * Chairman: Larry Dingus * President/CEO: C. Shannon Jenkins * Employees: 50 * Products: Computer maintenance and diagnostic software * 1994 sales: $7.2 million, up 47%

Source: Bloomberg Business News, Dow Jones; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times