Microsoft Corp. typically lets its software out in the world and leaves decisions about how to sell computers to retailers. This time, though, the company is taking matters into its own hands.

As systems running its latest operating software go on sale Friday, Microsoft is playing an unprecedented role in dictating how computers should be displayed in big-box stores and how they should be pitched and explained to shoppers.

The company also is more than doubling the number of its own retail locations to sell directly to consumers—opening 34 U.S. "pop up" stores this week, mostly in shopping malls, to help show off systems that include its new Surface tablet.

Among other elements of the strategy: Every computer displayed in Best Buy Co. and other U.S. retailers will show emails, family photos and personal contacts of "Allison Brown," a fictional woman whose identity was crafted by Microsoft to make demonstration computers feel personal. (In Latin America, the computer user is named Alicia González. In Germany, she is Franziska Fiegler.)

Microsoft and chip partner Intel Corp. helped train hundreds of thousands of retail-store employees on features of the new Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft and Best Buy worked together on new displays to make it more inviting for people to wander around and try out devices. Best Buy says it expanded store space devoted to computing devices by about 7% to 12%.