Bold Tahoma, Italicized Arial in XP

Mugenmidget

I'm trying to help a friend with a weird problem. Tahoma fonts everywhere on his copy of XP SP3 show up in bold and Arial fonts show up in italics. He provided me with some examples.

Pidgin:


GameFAQs:


Start Menu:


That last one doesn't look too awkward to me but it's a little different than default, I guess. He says the pronounced italics is there on the "welcome" message as he starts up as well as Windows Media Player (which I guess both use Arial).

What kind of repair should be used for this? I found a topic with a similar problem but they recommended a System Restore Point. He doesn't have "System Restore" enabled so that's out of the question. Is there another method he can use short of a full reinstall?

exoplasm

I had this problem once; he is missing the non-italic/bold versions of those fonts. He just needs to obtain those (perhaps from you?) and put them in C:\Windows\Fonts or use the shortcut in control panel.

Pheezer

Yeah, the correct fonts have either been re-named, corrupted or deleted. When Windows fails to load the correct font file, it will try the next one it finds in the directory. Check to see if the files are there first. If they are, replace them by copying over fresh copies of the files, either from your PC or from the install disc.

Mugenmidget

Apparently he fell victim to a rootkit or something particularly nasty. You guys were spot on about the file corruption, but that wasn't the only thing deteriorating on his PC. He's at a point where he can't even seem to get his XP CD to start so he can reformat, which kinda boggles me but I suppose there might be some sort of a hardware failure.

Regardless, he's still under warranty on his laptop and he's going to exchange it. Thanks for your help, though!

Frem

This thread on some forum might help.

Some dude on that other forum wrote:

I've had the same problem with everything being in italics. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the issue was...

Get TweakUI. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Run it. Click "Repair" then select "Repair Fonts Folder".

I don't know what happened to my fonts folder for this to happen, but at least TweakUI fixed it.