A fix distributed to some Windows XP systems earlier this week is a preventative measure and not a new issue, Microsoft said Thursday. On Tuesday night, the software giant’s WindowsUpdate and AutoUpdate systems applied a patch to many Windows XP systems to fix an issue that originally was patched in November. The patch surprised Microsoft customers–and even some of the software giant’s employees–because the company previously had said that there would not be any fixes coming in December. “Frankly, it was a lack of communication–human error,” said Sean Sundwall, a Microsoft spokesman. “At no point was someone vulnerable because of this error.” Full Story