Windows XP, the new operating system launched by Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, is the software giant's most stable and feature-rich consumer product yet, but it still has some hardware and software issues as well as persistent -- some say menacing -- links to other Microsoft services. Thursday marked the retail debut of what the software giant called its most significant product in six years. The product is based on the programming technology found at the heart of Microsoft's corporate operating system, Windows 2000. That means Windows XP hardly ever crashes. Individual programs might freeze, but rarely take down the whole system, a constant danger with earlier consumer operating systems from Windows 95 to last year's Windows Me. "The biggest improvement, the one I think is going to be the clincher, is that it just doesn't crash as often," said Andy Rathbone, author of "Windows XP for Dummies." "The other features are more like icing on the cake. Some people are going to need and like them while others won't even use them."
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