Font(s) fouled up

piiax · 12 Feb 2010

Big problem. On my new machine I've been setting up a dual boot, W7 first and then XPsp3 added so I can use a few programs that cannot run in W7. So I wanted to include my old XP font collection in the new setup. I copied all the fonts directly into the new XP's font folder, overwriting whatever. Zam, blam, after rebooting XP some of the fonts the os uses were replaced by strange geometric symbols. These include the font(s) for the word Start, the font for the choices at the top of the start panel screen, for much of the control panels introductory screen, the font used in the title bar in all open programs, the 'windows is shutting down now screen' and the screen where you choose which user the os will set up for when booting. Is there any way to fix this situation without reinstalling XP?

seekermeister · 12 Feb 2010

First off, the SOP is to install the oldest version of Windows first, followed by the newer, but I don't think this has anything to do with the font issue. I'm a bit confused as to what you said that you wanted to do, and what you said that you did. If you wanted to include XP fonts in Windows 7, why do you say that you copied Window 7 fonts in XP? When you boot to Windows 7, do you experience any font issue that way?

whs · 12 Feb 2010

Easy, just reinstall your XP fonts. I assume you saved them somewhere before destroying them.

seekermeister · 12 Feb 2010

whs said:

Easy, just reinstall your XP fonts. I assume you saved them somewhere before destroying them.

Maybe you're right, I never thought of anyone removing the standard fonts, only adding to them.

piiax · 12 Feb 2010

I installed W7 first because I partition my drives and didn't want XP install changing the drive letters of the later partitions, down to letter M. So XP when installed became drive O which is what I wanted since eventually I will be deleting the XP partition when I have the money to upgrade the programs that won't work with W&, eg. Photoshop CS2. What I did is that I wanted to have my old XP fonts in the new XP. So I overwrote the new XP font folder with the old. This has nothing to do with the W7 fonts as I left them alone after seeing what happened with XP. WHS, are you saying I should just overwrite them once again to try to fix things?

whs · 12 Feb 2010

If you have the ones that were there in the first place, I would put them back.

piiax · 12 Feb 2010

No, I don't. Any way to extract them from the install disk without reinstalling? I remember in the good old days there was an extract command that could do it if you knew the right file. Edit: I googled the problem and there are solutions, expanding the install files is one. I'll try to fix it tomorrow and let you all know. Thanks for everyone's replies.

bjmarler · 12 Feb 2010

I wonder if part of the problem is the "type" of font you used? Were the fonts a mix of "OpenType" and "TrueType?"

Here is some basic info on fonts that I hope helps a little...

Installing Fonts in Windows : MyFonts

In part it states this...
System Requirements

OpenType fonts work with Windows XP and Windows 2000.

TrueType fonts work with all versions of the Windows operating system.

WindowsStar · 13 Feb 2010

piiax said:

Big problem. On my new machine I've been setting up a dual boot, W7 first and then XPsp3 added so I can use a few programs that cannot run in W7. So I wanted to include my old XP font collection in the new setup. I copied all the fonts directly into the new XP's font folder, overwriting whatever. Zam, blam, after rebooting XP some of the fonts the os uses were replaced by strange geometric symbols. These include the font(s) for the word Start, the font for the choices at the top of the start panel screen, for much of the control panels introductory screen, the font used in the title bar in all open programs, the 'windows is shutting down now screen' and the screen where you choose which user the os will set up for when booting. Is there any way to fix this situation without reinstalling XP?

If I understand this; you are saying you just copied the FONTS from OLD XP install to the NEW XP install, and you did not install them?

(i.e. copy m:\Old\windows\fonts\*.* q:\new\windows\fonts)
Or
From Windows 7 via Windows Explorer

If you did the fonts did not install and will not work. What you need to do is open "Windows Explorer" While booted in the NEW XP and copy and paste the fonts. Windows will ask you if you want to install the fonts.

If you get an error that the font already exists I think you can re-install. If not you may have to manually delete the fonts from the NEW install and then do the copy and paste.

piiax · 14 Feb 2010

Well, this has become something of a disaster. Sorry not to have replied sooner and sorry for the long reply. !st off in Win7 I created an image backup of the 2 os partitions,7 & XP. Seeing how many fonts possibly were involved I decided to try to repair XP so the fonts would be fixed (that was one of the methods I found when googling.) But XP repair insisted on knowing the administrator password and since I never had one, it wouldn't go any further. I even went back and created one but that didn't work. So, knowing I had the image backup I said what the hell and deleted the XP partition in order to do a reinstall. Numerous times I tried to get XP to start installing, but there was always some complaint about the partition not being right for an xp install. So I got out the image backup and ran it. TG Win7 was ok, but when I tried loading XP, no go: hal.dll was missing. So bye bye XP. This morning I ran into a computer wiz type guy and he said it was the boot record that was preventing xp to re-install, and that I could fix it with msconfig. Well, no joy there, and then I used EasyBCD to get rid of the XP entry in the boot manager, but still no joy. So looking at this blank partition using 7's partition manager I saw that it's volume description in properties was "Partition Style: master boot record MBR". So I guess I would somehow need to fix this and I've been trying to read up about it, perhaps using SuperDisk to alter the partition, but know that the "cure" may be worse than the disease.