Group Urges Expansion of Microsoft Pact : Software: Company opposes the request to include Windows NT in its licensing settlement.

A computer trade group wants a federal judge to expand the scope of an antitrust settlement that Microsoft Corp. reached last year with the Justice Department.

The Computer and Communications Industry Assn. has filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to alter the consent decree that restricts Microsoft from engaging in unfair licensing practices for its Windows 3.1 software. Microsoft filed court papers Thursday opposing the request, a day after the group’s filing.

In its June ruling, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Microsoft-Justice pact and ordered a lower court to approve it.

The 1994 accord required Microsoft to alter contracts with personal computer manufacturers that allegedly shut out competing operating system software. (Operating system software contains the programs that run a computer’s basic functions.) The deal does not cover Microsoft’s Windows NT, a powerful program to control the flow of data over companies’ large computer networks.

Windows NT was excluded because it does not currently control a large share of the market, according to court records.

The computer trade group said in its motion that the Court of Appeals suggested Windows NT should be included in the agreement, because it could emerge as a dominant operating system.

“It might well be that the decree would be strengthened if Windows NT were explicitly covered [it also could be that this was a concession the government made in bargaining] but that is of no great moment,” the appeals court wrote.

The CCIA contends Microsoft’s strategy is to migrate existing users from the existing Windows 3.1 software to Windows NT.

A Microsoft spokesman was not immediately available for comment.