Alien-Abduction

[ichdurfte]

well basically i come into work and everyone is all huddled around one monitor, so I check it out, and apparently an alien abducted this PC, well, just check it out.

Anyone with ideas on how to fix this? We were just gonna do a Windows restore, but aside from that and anal probing, i'm not sure what to do.

Input?

 

[Ste]

Try running a repair, other then that see if you can't change the default language, but uh thats no language Ive ever seen.

Can also try a reinstall, Back up files!!!!

Someone prolly just playing a joke on you.

 

[brady]

Your font/language packs have been corrupted.
A repair on this OS will fix that.

 

[Tyler1989]

I want to say someone played a prank on you and changed the language pack I doubt you can read WingLings or whatever it is to switch back to english so try a repair as suggested.

 

[Osiris]

Your font/language packs have been corrupted.
A repair on this OS will fix that.

Brady hit it. That happened to me before. I deleted most fonts on my system before cuz they say it makes it faster, so i did, and thats what I cam up with...

 

[Inaris]

all you need is another machine with running word and a little patience to figure out how to restore it. You just need to change the default font back to tahoma or whatever it is. This is a registry setting that is in explorer somewhere. I'll look and see if I can find it. Rebuilding isn't an option!... Learn to fix it before commiting suicide.



ok, this is what I was able to find. Give it a try if you want...

quoted from http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web/Graphics/Fonts/Q_20533156.html

Recently I had a problem very similar to the one addressed in this thread. I decided to post an addendum to this thread since:

1. I kept getting it in my google results
2. Every post in it is wrong
3. I don't consider "reinstall windows" a valid answer (points for that? pffft...)

After a deep analysis of this problem I discovered that the problem is really two-fold.

First, windows has a default regsitry field called "fontsubstitutions" that manages meta-level font associations. Essentially its like a fonts host file, referencing certain font names to default font files. For example, "Helvetica" in fontsubstitutes points to the font "Arial" directly. This accounts for the reason windows users always see Arial instead of Helvetica in, say, programs like IE.

Anyway, if the values of these fields changed its ENTIRELY possible that you would get faulty references. As such you should go into the registry and check to make sure the values are correct. Teh location is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Whether mine are still correct or not is a toss up, but I have the following (there are more than I list, but these seem to be the system important ones):

Helv = MS Sans Serif
Helvetica = Arial
MS Shell Dlg = Microsoft Sans Serif
MS Shell Dlg2 = Tahoma

Now while this COULD be the problem the OP was having, I don't think it is (and it wasn't for me). The second possibility is that certain core font files were acccidentally removed or deleted, and that because your system can't find them its substituting random fonts for the ones it needs.

My problem specifically was taht dialog windows would display HUGE fonts that pushed out of the bounds of a non-adjustable window. A novice would probably assum the size was wrong. Howeber, knowing that different fonts look different and have different default sizes I realized it was probably just a missing or incorrect association.

Anyway, I did a comparative list and was troubled to find that certain core font files, namely:

MS Sans Serif (which is NOT Microsoft Sans Serif)
MS Serif

and a few others were missing. The odd thing was that they weren't ttf files, and I couldn't find them or a reference to them. Everyone who listed defaqult fonts just listed the names (e.g., MS Sans Serif), and I was at a loss to find them either on the net, in the install cd, or on my machine. Perhaps even MORE amazingly, MS' own typography site doesn't even LIST these fonts (like ms sans serif) as default windows xp fonts!

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/product.aspx?PID=135

To make a long story short it turned out these are ".fon" files (a type I didn't even realize existed), and for some unknown reason had just gotten deleted or removed somehow. They wouldn't appear in a search for truetype versions, the names are odd, and you basically don't realize what you need unless you already know. You can get a complete list of the fonts installed in XP by default, INCLUDING fon font files, via the link below:

http://www.styopkin.com/articles/fonts_installed_winxp.html

Since MS doesn't offer file downloads for them the only solution is to either get them from another XP system's font folder or extract them from an install CD. I chose the latter since I didn't have another XP system immediately on hand (I do, but no monitor for teh desktop at the moment).

To extract the files type the following at the run line with the MS install CD in the cd drive (e:

for ".FON" font files:
expand E:\i386\Sserife.fo_ C:\Sserife.fon

for ".TTF" font files:
expand E:\i386\Arial.tt_ C:\Arial.ttf

The first reference is to the file on the CD, second is the extracted file that will be placed at the top of the main drive. Just change the filename as needed, paying attention to the file type reference (the underline).

And THAT is an actual answer to the OP... reinstall windows... I mean REALLY, do you tell someone whose car won't start to go get a new engine?

-rt