Windows displaying symbols instead of legible text.

NoelDP · 27 Oct 2011

I've asked a CheckSUR expert to keep an eye on this thread - so hopefully you'll get a quick response (depending on his real-life work schedule)
In the meantime, please open an Elevated (Admin) Command Prompt window, and issue the following command at the prompt.
fsutil resource setautoreset true %systemdrive%\

Then reboot - it may, or may not, affect the number of pending renames - so please run another SFC and post the new log before running CheckSUR (if you haven't run CheckSUR already)

Gemini365i · 29 Aug 2012

Hi Guys,

This just happened to me, after a windows Update on 7HP.
what you can do is use explorer to actually type the location of your Fonts directory: C:\WINDOWS\FONTS or ANY directory to browse your system

The system actually knows what you are typing and will take you to any directory you type into the Explorer search bar.

I found out that I only have 3 fonts left ton my system after some kind of software change, windows update etc. Luckily, I had backed up all of my fonts and uploaded a .rar archive of all my system fonts to Google Drive.

I am now logged on to my dedicated server, downloading the fonts that I uploaded to Google.Drive, to my messed up system.

You just have to know the image for certain system folders and system locations to navigate your system with symbols.... I hope this works and is helpful for someone, including me!

Then what I did was use Remote Desktop and an FTP client to ftp into my dedicated server, and name the downloaded fonts directory, to some long character name, so that I would be able to tell what it was by the symbols. I added a bunch of capital L's to the directory name, which in turn, makes the symbols appear as a square. so LLLLLL would be converted to a bunch of squares.

Now once the download finished to my symbol system, I plan on selecting ALL of the fonts from the downloaded directory, and PASTING them into my Windows Fonts directory. Wish me luck.

I have a backup of 3,124 Fonts. if anyone would like a copy of the fonts for their safekeeping, I uploaded the .rar archive for you. They will be here:

http://www.urbanradiousa.com/downloads/WindowsFonts.rar

WOOOHOOO! Update! I just finished FTP'ing and re-installing my fonts. I AM BACK TO NORMAL. once windows installed the Fonts, the system immediately changed to the proper font and the symbols were gone!

Good luck