Proud owners of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system may find that they can't play one of the hottest DVDs of the holiday season on their computers: Disney's re-release of its classic film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The glitch is surfacing on the eve of Microsoft's launch of Windows XP in one of the biggest high-tech marketing campaigns ever. It also comes as Disney is trying to boost sagging profits by selling one of the most popular animated films on DVD.

"Some users that have newer systems with Windows 2000 or XP installed may experience playability failures with the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD," said a posting by InterActual Technologies, the software company that provides customer support for the DVD for computer users. "The Walt Disney Company and Microsoft are jointly addressing this matter, and expect to provide a resolution for consumers shortly."

According to Microsoft spokesman Greg Sullivan, Disney "didn't test the disk on Windows 2000 or Windows XP." He said the number of DVDs with the glitch were in the low "hundreds of thousands." Disney downplayed the problem. A spokesman said patches would be released by the end of the week. According to InterActual support engineer Steve Zupan, the problem is not related to his company's software, which is installed on the DVD. Zupan also observed that the "Snow White" DVD runs on Windows 98. Zupan would not disclose how many complaints his company had received.