Windows 7 help desperately needed

[pacifichrono]

When I booted up this morning, most displayed fonts were suddenly in Marlett (symbols). Don't know how it happened - - nothing unusual in my last session yesterday. Below is how things look now. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium SP1.

With my son's help on another computer, I was able to navigate to "Window Color and Appearance" that allowed me to set the font for about half of the 20 or so categories. The other categories were grayed-out for the font. (?)

I tried restoring my computer to a save point 24 hours ago and then 48 hours ago, but the fonts were screwed up again. When I reboot, even the Windows 7 splash screen message is in Marlett, as are screens for other programs. A lot of dialog boxes I encounter in various programs are now in Marlett, so I can't decipher them or do things like save files or reply to emails.

Any ideas???

[pacifichrono]

I just discovered that when I open Word or Excel, the full font list does not come up, just System, Fixedsys, and Marlett.

I checked the C:\Windows\Fonts folder and only found these:

...Fixedsys Regular
...System Bold
...Terminal
(so why /how is Marlett showing up everywhere?)

What happened to the 100 or so other fonts, and is there a way to restore those fonts?

I tried a Windows Explorer "search" of C:\ for a few typical fonts but came up empty!

[pacifichrono]

I got my machine "fixed," I think. Don't know how it happened but I finally copied all the fonts from my wife's computer onto an external HD, then copied and installed them on my computer. It seems to have fixed the problem.

[mfxr]

Thats a strange one for sure. I was going to suggest that you may be able to revert to an earlier restore point, as a simple fix.
Alternativley opening an elevated CMD prompt and typing the command sfc /scannow should scan and restore any missing or damaged windows system files, including fonts (I say should, I have fixed other issues this way, but not this exact font problem )

I would also be doing a virus scan also , especially if you are not sure what caused the problem.

you can download Microsoft Security Essentials for free on windows 7 if you don't have any virus scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/security ... fault.aspx

[AZpops]

If you think you may've got something, there is also a free download program called Malwarebytes that I run a few times a week, as well as my Webroot Antivirus and spyware sweeper to keep things in check.

I'm no IT guy, and everything I do is by trial and error (so not sure if I'm doing stuff right) kind of thing. Usually when I do a system restore, I select a date a week or so back, usually a date prior to a windows up date (or say even my printer update). To see if the update could be the culprit!

I keep and work on my imortant documents on a different drive, cause there was a time or two that I had to reinstall the OS. Yeah it's a PITA (and an extreme thing to do), but it did cure any problems I was having.

I'm running Vista home premium, and so far held off the temptaion to upgrade to window's 7 (even though I have a free upgrade thing).

[pacifichrono]

Thanks, guys. I wish I knew what caused this problem. My computer is an older HP Pavillion (maybe 3+ years old) and it gets lots of use. Every day I'm running one or two or three various utility programs to keep it clean of viruses, spyware, Internet tracks, registry problems, etc. My favorites are CCleaner, Norton 360, Malwarebytes, Wise Registry and Disk Cleaner, and Ace Utilities.

[toxicavenger]

it has been a few years ago but there was a virus going around that did this shit.
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6132_102-45771.html

[AZpops]

Thanks, guys. I wish I knew what caused this problem. My computer is an older HP Pavillion (maybe 3+ years old) and it gets lots of use. Every day I'm running one or two or three various utility programs to keep it clean of viruses, spyware, Internet tracks, registry problems, etc. My favorites are CCleaner, Norton 360, Malwarebytes, Wise Registry and Disk Cleaner, and Ace Utilities.

Yup, I’d say you’ve got your belt and suspenders on!

Glad you got it fixed, but if it does come back, you’ll know something snucked it’s way in! After which, I’d clean the HD, then reinstall the OS!


Have a great week!