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Imagine if you bought a brand-new car only to find it had 500 annoying problems. You'd probably return the car to the dealer. Yet when Microsoft makes 500 errors in an operating system, the company gets congratulated for its best work in years. Welcome to Windows 2000: It may well be more stable than its sibling OSs, but Microsoft, nonetheless, had to post a second update for Windows 2000 users.

Service Pack 2 fixes hundreds of pesky bugs. For example, Windows 2000 doesn't recognize some USB devices when the OS wakes from hibernation mode, it doesn't always play video properly, and it has a slew of recently discovered security holes. Not all 500 fixes affect you if you're running Windows 2000 Pro, but you'll still want to get SP2.

Warning: At 20MB, this service pack isn't svelte. You can download the update or get the service pack on CD-ROM ($14.95 plus $5 shipping and handling) by ordering it from Microsoft or calling 800/360-7561.

WordPerfect Office 2002: Update Already?

Ouch. Corel's WordPerfect Office 2002 was hardly on store shelves two weeks before the company had to ship its first update. Service Pack 1 fixes a major problem: Some Windows 2000 users couldn't run the suite at all. When they tried, they encountered an obscure error message, "Unable to load WPWIN10.DLL."

You can download the 811KB patch, which is named WPO2002Patch.exe. According to a Corel spokesperson, the company is already shipping the updated code in the latest shrink-wrapped versions of the product.

Worm Masquerades As Virus Alert

The latest scare on the virus front is a worm that affects Outlook and Outlook Express users. An e-mail message appears with the subject line "FW: Symantec Anti-Virus Warning." The message purports to be from someone named F. Jones.

If you click the file attachment, titled www.Symantec.com.vbs, the worm will infect your computer. The damage? The rogue program sends copies of itself to everyone in your Outlook address book. It also changes your browser's default home page to a fake virus information page and changes some Windows Registry settings.

To get rid of the worm (also known as VBS.Hard.A@mm), load the latest virus update from your antivirus software company. If your machine runs Symantec's Norton AntiVirus or McAfee's VirusScan, any virus definition update dated May 12, 2001, or later will protect you against this interloper.

Symantec and McAfee have posted detailed instructions online on how to handle the worm. For help, visit Symantec or McAfee.