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WARNING: make sure the capacitor is discharged!  This is both for your safety and the continued health of your multimeter.

A pair of 1N400x diodes in parallel with opposite polarities may help protect the circuitry of a DMM.  Since a DMM doesn't supply more than .6 V generally on ohms ranges, the diodes will not affect the readings but will conduct should you accidentally put the meter across a charged cap or power supply output. They won't do much with a charged 10 F capacitor or high current supply where you forgot to pull the plug but may save your DMM's LSI chip with more modest goof-ups.

This approach cannot be used with a typical analog VOM because they usually supply too much voltage on the ohms ranges.  However, my 20 year old analog VOM has something like this across the meter movement itself which has saved it more than once.

A suitable discharge tool for each of these applications can be made as quite easily. The capacitor discharge indicator circuit described below can be built into this tool to provide a visual display of polarity and charge (not really needed for CRTs as the discharge time constant is virtually instantaneous even with a muli-M ohm resistor.

* Solder one end of the appropriate size resistor (for your application) along with the indicator circuit (if desired) to a well insulated clip lead about 2-3 feet long. For safety reasons, these connections must be properly soldered - not just wrapped.

* Solder the other end of the resistor (and discharge circuit) to a well insulated contact point such as a 2 inch length of bare #14 copper wire mounted on the end of a 2 foot piece of PVC or Plexiglas rod which will act as an extension handle.

* Secure everything to the insulating rod with some plastic electrical tape.
This discharge tool will keep you safely clear of the danger area. Again, always double check with a reliable voltmeter or by shorting with an insulated screwdriver!