ENTER the Microsoft IE Challenge Giveaway today, and you might win a Texas Instruments multimedia laptop computer valued at more than $3,000.
Or you might win one of 10 copies of Microsoft's new Windows NTServer 4.0, or even a copy of the company's Microsoft Office Professional software applications ''suite.''
And unlike other national giveaways, the odds of winning are excellent. As of the first week in September, the company says, fewer than 10,000 people had entered.
But be advised: There's a catch.
Microsoft's Challenge is designed to prove to the world that it's World Wide Web browser, Internet Explorer 3.0, is better than the competition, Navigator 3.0 from Netscape Communications Corp. Browsers are the software programs that people use to access the millions of ''sites'' on the Web, filled with pictures, graphics and audio and video clips.
The Challenge consists of nine pages on the World Wide Web that look better with Microsoft's product than with Netscape's, largely because the Web pages use features that Netscape hasn't built into its browser.
On the last page of the Microsoft Challenge is a survey and a contest entry form. The survey asks typical questions that Microsoft is sure to use in future advertisements: ''Which browser do you think has better content support? . . . Which browser do you think is the most secure?''
And the contest entry form asks for the sort of information that you would have to provide in order to receive your free laptop, should you win it: your name, address and phone number.
So what's the catch?
If you try to look at the last page of the Challenge with any Web browser other than Microsoft's, you aren't allowed to register.
Instead of giving you a form to fill out, Microsoft's Web server displays this message: ''To register for the IE Challenge Giveaway, you must be using Internet Explorer 3.0 release version.''
Unlike Netscape Navigator, Microsoft's Explorer only runs on the company's Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. As a result, people who use Macintosh or UNIX computers are effectively barred from entering. It won't even allow people using Microsoft's older operating systems, such as Windows 3.1 or earlier versions, to register. And unlike practically every other contest that is open to consumers, Microsoft makes no provisions for people to enter by traditional U.S. mail.
Is this an illegal lottery? Or is it simply a shrewd marketing ploy that is only open to people who have bought other Microsoft products?
A spokesman for the California Attorney General's office refused to comment on the particu lars of this case, but he would say that California law prohibits private contests and lotteries requiring that people pay to enter.
''The law says that a lottery is any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property by chance among persons who have paid or promise to pay any valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such property or apportion of it,'' said Matt Ross.
Microsoft insists that the contest is legal because Internet Explorer is free - despite the fact that in order to run it, somebody needs to first purchase another Microsoft product.
''I understand the argument . . . but the argument that you have to purchase Windows 95 or Windows NT in order to participate apparently doesn't hold water from a legal ground,'' said Mark Murray, a spokesman for the company. ''The next logical step would be (that) I have to purchase a computer in order participate in this contest.
John Awerdick, a New Jersey attorney who specialized in sweepstakes law for the direct marketing industry, agreed with Microsoft, saying the contest doesn't appear to violate the law.
''We believe that this contest complies with all of the current legal requirements,'' Microsoft's Murray said. ''Obviously, we apologize if the contest has caused any confusion for people who use Macintosh or UNIX or other non-Windows systems.''
The trick, for those in a Window-less world, is they can enter the contest by registering through a friend's computer or by using a computer at work or in a public library that offers Internet access - provided that the access is offered using a Windows 95 or Windows NT computer.
''It looks like a defensible sweepstakes,'' said John Awerdick of the New Jersey Attorney General's office. But Awerdick cautioned that each state has slightly different laws regardingthe regulation of these contests.
Microsoft says it is working on a version of Internet Explorer 3.0 for those other computers, although those programs are not scheduled to be available before the contest closes on Friday.
''The marketing folks told me that they are already planning on having a
similar contest when they release the Macintosh version'' of Internet Explorer
3.0, Murray said.
Copyright 1995, The San Jose Mercury News. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.