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This is probably going to rank high in the insanity department, but my question is how I make my Fixedsys look like Fixedsys. Somehow, despite being installed, it always ends up substituted with another font. I made a screenshot that should explain the exact problem:

alt text

The top preview does not match the bottom previews (below the black seperator line, or outside my handdrawn red rectangle). Too emphasize the matter, all other applications also get the wrong font - the red text was added using a text tool set to FixedSys, 12pt.

Research brought me to find that a font called Terminal Font for the IBM 8514, filename 8514oem_0.fon on my machine is the substituted font. So I deleted that, and to make sure it was gone, I also deleted C:\Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT as this page recommends. One reboot later, the cache was back, but the issue is still there.

So at this point, I am horribly lost. I can't find another font in my list resembling the one that is oppressing my FixedSys, but I really want my Fixedsys back. Who can help me figure this one out?

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There's no reason for the profanity, especially since it's part of an image and can't be quickly removed. – Velociraptors Sep 25 '10 at 21:46
I originally created the image several hours before I posted this question when I explained it to a friend, and I also originally had it as a hyperlink with somewhat of a warning regarding my frustrations. Doesn't make it right, I admit, but it wasn't as in-your-face as it seems at present. I'll see to censoring and editing it for you. – Stigma Sep 25 '10 at 21:49
I was the one to include the image, it was just a link before. I also removed the naughty word. (I should have done that from the start, sorry. – Nifle Sep 25 '10 at 21:52
I didn't see that the image was originally linked, but thanks for addressing the issue. – Velociraptors Sep 25 '10 at 21:54
Seems you beat me to it. Thanks. – Stigma Sep 25 '10 at 21:54

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

It took me a full day and then some, but I finally figured out the issue, which was located in:

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

I had a small dozen values referencing Fixedsys in some way, which I deleted after confirming with a friend he had no such entries (both running W7 64-bit). To be exact, I had the following values, which I just took out of the just-in-case backup I made prior to deleting said values (do not import these values lest you want the trouble I was in!):

"Fixedsys for the IBM 8514"="8514fix_0.fon"
"Fixedsys (8514)"="8514fixe_0.fon"
"Fixedsys (8514 res)"="h8514fix_0.fon"
"Fixedsys (VGA res)"="hvgafix_0.fon"
"Fixedsys (VGA)"="vgaf1257_0.fon"
"Fixedsys (Set #6)"="vgafix_1.fon"

I guess that somehow this caused Windows to get confused and think of another font as being my font when it was asked to display the Fixedsys font.

TL;DR? Delete spurious (incorrect) values. Don't delete too much or you might break other stuff.

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You'll have to wait 48 hours, but you should mark this as the answer when you can. – Velociraptors Sep 26 '10 at 0:19
I did a little research, and it looks like Windows decided you were using an 8514 graphics controller, rather than something based on VGA. What kind of video card do you have? – Velociraptors Sep 26 '10 at 0:27
A NVIDIA Gefore 8800GT, which is confirmed by my device manager (thankfully, was afraid I got ripped off 3 years ago for a minute). Nothing special, so it is really pretty weird. – Stigma Sep 27 '10 at 15:45
up vote -1 down vote

You could try Combofix. No warranty of side effects.

Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them,ComboFix allows the manual removal of spyware infections , It ‘s a specialized effective cleaning tool, which is useful compared to other malware and spyware removers.After Combofix finished,a report will be created. You can use this report to search and remove infections which are not automatically removed.

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The way I understand it that is a rather rigorous spyware removal tool, correct? Given the fact I am clean according to my protectors, and run a weekly overnight scan using yet another tool, I prefer to hold off on this attempt. (Last time I used a 'cleaning tool', it messed my computer up more than it fixed it.) – Stigma Sep 25 '10 at 21:58

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