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After a series of delays, Microsoft have released the last major update for its Windows XP operating system to wide distribution.

Windows XP Service Battalion 3 is available from Microsoft's machine-controlled Windows Update service or as a data file that tin be pulled from the on the company's Web site.

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Microsoft had planned to broadly offer Windows XP SP3 earlier, but the release was delayed by a series of bugs -- including one that rendered the update incompatible with PCs that have got Microsoft's Dynamics Retail Management system installed.

Microsoft is now offering a spot that resolutenesses the conflict.

The service battalion should offer a figure of sweetenings over the current version of the OS, which Microsoft is phasing out after June 30. It includes all updates issued since Windows XP Service Battalion 2 was released in 2004, as well as some new elements.

Among them: a characteristic called Network Entree Protection that's borrowed from the newer Windows View operating system. sleep automatically validates a computer's health, ensuring that it's liberate of bugs and viruses before allowing it entree to a network.

Windows XP SP3 also includes improved "black hole" router sensing -- a characteristic that automatically detects routers that are silently discarding packets. In XP SP3, the characteristic is turned on by default, according to Microsoft.

Additionally, Windows XP SP3 steals a page from Vista's product-activation model, meaning that merchandise keys for each transcript of the operating system don't necessitate to be entered during setup. The characteristic should turn out popular with corporate IT managers, who often necessitate to supervise hundreds, or even thousands, of operating system installations.

Some users may resist at a characteristic in XP SP3 that forestalls them from downgrading their browser from Internet Explorer 7 to the aged IE 6 once the service battalion have been installed. XP SP3 also won't put in on systems running beta versions of the yet-to-be-released IE 8.

Microsoft said the limitations are designed to forestall system instabilities.