New patch: Caution note

Microsoft issued October's PC security patches last Tuesday, but later reported one of them was causing some users major computer problems - but "only when default permission settings on a Windows directory have been changed," CNET reports. If your settings haven't been, you're fine, and Microsoft says the patch is still needed. If your permission settings have been changed, you probably already know what can happen: users locked out of their PCs, Windows Firewall not starting, certain software not running, an empty network connections folder, "among other things"! There's a guide to restoring "the default permissions and the COM+ catalog" at Microsoft's Web site. Meanwhile, you are not alone: Here's one very tech-literate PC owner's account, at the Washington Post, of how complicated it was even for him to get his patches up-to-date after his laptop was "repaired."