# [SOLVED] Fonts problem - always bold



## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

I was uninstalling a program (Left 4 Dead) when the uninstall program stopped running so I was forced to terminate it using task manager. And here is where the problem started. ll ym fonts became either italic or bold.

I tried all the solutions posted in the following thread: http://www.techsupportforum.com/f217/problem-with-italic-fonts-everywhere-arial-233328.html

it got rid of the italics problem but not the bold problem. Many texts are still in bold. Also, my pc does not recognize the Times New Roman font. When I type in microsoft word, even if I set the font to Times New Roman, what appears on the screen seems to be Segoe-UI or something. I understand this is a registry problem... although obviously I do not know how to solve it. I want to see my old fonts again. Basically, I want to have my fonts restored to the default of Windows Vista.

btw, I'm using Vista Home, running on a Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Thanks in advance!


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## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

I think the registry patches I applied substituted the fonts to Segoe-UI. This is not what I intended to do... It may have did more harm than good.


Can anyone examine the registry files in the link I provided (I applied both of them) and see how to revert them to the default? Thanks!


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Welcome to TSF!

Yes, those would set everything to Segoe. I compared that to my Vista Home Premium test box which is pretty much a clean install.

The file in the .rar file near the end would have restored the defaults for the FontSubstitute entries, but wouldn't have removed the added ones, and didn't reset the Fonts entries.

The following will reset the defaults for both the FontSubstitutes and Fonts keys and remove extra entries that were added that don't exist on my system in the FontSubstitues and MUICache keys. This only changes the ones that those two files changed, it doesn't reset all entries.

Copy the text in the following code block into Notepad.
Save it on the desktop with a *.reg* extension. Be sure to change the *Save as Type:* box to *All Files* when saving.

```
[PLAIN]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Arial"=-
"Helv"="MS Sans Serif"
"MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"=-
"MS Sans Serif"=-
"MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"=-
"MS Serif"=-
"MS Shell Dlg 2"="Tahoma"
"MS Shell Dlg"="Microsoft Sans Serif"
"Microsoft Sans Serif"=-
"Small Fonts"=-
"System"=-
"Tahoma"=-
"Times New Roman"=-
"Times"="Times New Roman"
"Tms Rmn"="MS Serif"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Arial (TrueType)"="arial.ttf"
"Arial Bold (TrueType)"="arialbd.ttf"
"Arial Bold Italic (TrueType)"="arialbi.ttf"
"Arial Italic (TrueType)"="ariali.ttf"
"MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="SSERIFE.FON"
"MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24"="SERIFE.FON"
"Microsoft Sans Serif (TrueType)"="micross.ttf"
"Tahoma (TrueType)"="tahoma.ttf"
"Tahoma Bold (TrueType)"="tahomabd.ttf"
"Times New Roman (TrueType)"="times.ttf"
"Times New Roman Bold (TrueType)"="timesbd.ttf"
"Times New Roman Bold Italic (TrueType)"="timesbi.ttf"
"Times New Roman Italic (TrueType)"="timesi.ttf"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache]
"@themeui.dll,-2037"=-
"@themeui.dll,-2038"=-
"@themeui.dll,-2039"=-
"@themeui.dll,-2040"=-
"@themeui.dll,-2041"=-
"@themeui.dll,-2042"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontMapper\FamilyDefaults]
@="Arial"
"Swiss"="Arial"
"Roman"="Times New Roman"

[/PLAIN]
```
Double click the file to merge it into the Registry.
Click *Yes* in the prompt to confirm.
You should get a Success message, click *OK*.


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## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Thanks a lot! I now have Times new roman back! Microsoft word seems to be working fine. You're a real lifesaver!

However, using firefox, some websites still display text in all bold. Livejournal and this forum still do. Wikipedia and youtube are a-ok. Internet explorer yields all italics. Do I have to do a reinstall of my web browsers?

Weird thing, when I'm not logged in to livejournal, the text is ok. But when I log in, the text becomes all-bold. I've checked my account settings and it's not coming from there.


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Sounds like some of the font entries are wrong, or possibly the font file itself is missing, and Windows is substituting the Bpld version for the regular.
Example:
"Arial (TrueType)"="arial.ttf"
"Arial *B*ol*d* (TrueType)"="arial*bd*.ttf"
"Arial *B*old *I*talic (TrueType)"="arial*bi*.ttf"
"Arial *I*talic (TrueType)"="arial*i*.ttf"

If you change all of them to "arial*bd*.ttf" then it will display bold for both normal and italic. Most fonts have the different styles identified like this, but not all.

There's usually several hundred fonts, so quite a task to look at each one.

What you can do is to remove the Fonts key from the registry then re-install the fonts that are in the Fonts folder.
The Fonts folder is customized so you can't see the actual files, so have disable that temporarily from the Command Prompt.

Copy the text in the following code block into Notepad.
Save it on the desktop as *FontClear.reg* extension. Be sure to change the *Save as Type:* box to *All Files* when saving.

```
[PLAIN]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
[/PLAIN]
```
We will use this to clear the Fonts key _after_ backing it up.

Click *Start | Run* (or press *WinKey+R*), type *regedit*, press *Enter*
Navigate to here:

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
```
Right click on *Fonts*, then click *Export*. Save the file on your Desktop as *FontsOld.reg*
Close the Registry Editor,
Double click the *FontClear.reg* file you saved earlier to merge it into the Registry.
Click *Yes* in the prompt to confirm.
You should get a Success message, click *OK*.
This removes all of the current entries.

Open an Elevated Command Prompt:
Click *Start*, type *cmd*, when *cmd.exe* appears in the list, right click it and click *Run as administrator*
Type these two lines, press *Enter* after each (There is a space between the different colors):
*CD /D %SystemRoot%\Fonts
ren desktop.ini desktop.old*
You'll be able to see the files in the folder now.
Double click *Computer* and navigate to *C:\Windows\Fonts*
Highlight all the Fonts you want to re-install, right click, then click *Install*
You may get a prompt that a font is "already installed, do you want to overwrite". I generally say yes, and check the box to do the same for other items; you can just check each one that comes up if you wish.
If you select all and don't exclude the non-font files, you'll also get a prompt on the non-font files that they aren't valid font files, just choose to not prompt for others and continue.
If you've installed fonts from other folders, and did not copy them to the Fonts folder, you'll need to re-install them as well.
Close the window
Back in the Elevated Command Prompt, type this:
* ren desktop.old desktop.ini*
This restores the customized Font folder view.

Log off/Log on, or Reboot, and see it things are working correctly now.
If not, then either that file is missing, and Windows is substituting the Bold/Italic version, or the file is the wrong one. You'd need to identify which font is being displayed incorrectly so you can replace it.
You might also want to check this key in the registry, there could be an entry that wasn't included in the above fixes that is forcing the wrong font to be used.

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
```
This is the entries I have on my Vista system, you can compare them to yours and either edit any that are different, or just save and merge this file:

```
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Arabic Transparent"="Arial"
"Arabic Transparent Bold"="Arial Bold"
"Arabic Transparent,0"="Arial,178"
"Arabic Transparent Bold,0"="Arial Bold,178"
"Helvetica"="Arial"
"Arial Baltic,186"="Arial,186"
"Arial CE,238"="Arial,238"
"Arial CYR,204"="Arial,204"
"Arial Greek,161"="Arial,161"
"Arial TUR,162"="Arial,162"
"Courier New Baltic,186"="Courier New,186"
"Courier New CE,238"="Courier New,238"
"Courier New CYR,204"="Courier New,204"
"Courier New Greek,161"="Courier New,161"
"Courier New TUR,162"="Courier New,162"
"Times"="Times New Roman"
"Times New Roman Baltic,186"="Times New Roman,186"
"Times New Roman CE,238"="Times New Roman,238"
"Times New Roman CYR,204"="Times New Roman,204"
"Times New Roman Greek,161"="Times New Roman,161"
"Times New Roman TUR,162"="Times New Roman,162"
"MS Shell Dlg 2"="Tahoma"
"MS Shell Dlg"="Microsoft Sans Serif"
"Helv"="MS Sans Serif"
"Tms Rmn"="MS Serif"
"David Transparent"="David"
"Miriam Transparent"="Miriam"
"Fixed Miriam Transparent"="Miriam Fixed"
"Rod Transparent"="Rod"
"FangSong_GB2312"="FangSong"
"KaiTi_GB2312"="KaiTi"
```


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## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Hi! I've arrived at "Type these two lines, press Enter after each (There is a space between the different colors):
CD /D %SystemRoot%\Fonts
ren desktop.ini desktop.old"

but I get the response "The system cannot find the file specified"

I opened the fonts folder but I can't see the fonts


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

The desktop.ini file must be set hidden and or system, mine isn't. I may have changed that a while back and forgot about it.

Just need to add one command to fix that, but let's see what yours is set to first.
Open an elevated prompt and enter these commands:
*CD /D %SystemRoot%\Fonts
attrib desktop.ini*

You should get something like this:

```
A  SH        C:\Windows\Fonts\desktop.ini
```
If you see the S or the H or both, we need to remove those with this command:
*attrib -H -S desktop.ini*
If you only have one letter, just include that one letter with the minus sign (order doesn't matter).
Then the rename should work.
*ren desktop.ini desktop.old*
This will not affect any window you alrady have open, so make sure you don't have a window open on the Fonts folder, run the commands, then open a new window.


Then after renaming it back we'll reset those attributes with the same command, just using a plus sign instead.
*ren desktop.old desktop.ini
attrib +H +S desktop.ini*
Again, just use the letters you originally saw, H, or S, or both


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## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Sir, it says "file not found - desktop.ini"

Could this be the source of the fiasco in the first place?


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

After typing the CD /D %SystemRoot%\Fonts command, the prompt displayed before the cursor shoud have changed to *C:\Windows\Fonts>*.
If it doesn't, then we are not in the right place.

If it does display that, type *Dir /A D** and press Enter, see if you see any files with the name desktop with any extension.

This is what I get:

```
C:\Windows\Fonts>[B]dir /A d*[/B]
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 3813-2B57

 Directory of C:\Windows\Fonts

10/02/2006  07:10 PM           190,700 daunpenh.ttf
05/22/2010  11:08 PM            56,600 david.ttf
05/22/2010  11:08 PM            55,652 davidbd.ttf
09/18/2006  02:37 PM                65 [B]desktop.ini[/B]
10/02/2006  07:10 PM           149,624 dokchamp.ttf
09/18/2006  02:34 PM            36,336 dos737.fon
09/18/2006  02:34 PM            36,816 dos869.fon
09/18/2006  02:34 PM            36,656 dosapp.fon
               8 File(s)        562,449 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  20,096,765,952 bytes free

C:\Windows\Fonts>
```


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## adiumroot (Sep 18, 2010)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

I've finally figured it out! I traced my commands and I actually committed a typo. I renamed it into "destkop.old". No wonder the system couldn't find it! haha!

All fonts are back to normal now! Thanks a lot! You've been very helpful! Have a good day!


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

*Re: Fonts problem - always bold*

Couple of transposed letters will casue all kinds of grief, and can be hard to spot, your mind will skip right over it. Glad you spotted it and got things working. (Edit - see what I mean, that should be *cause*)

I'll go ahead and mark this Solved for you;
You can also mark your own thread Solved by using the *Thread Tools* at the Top Right of this thread (above the first post)

Jerry


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