BleepingComputer.com: Please Help Me Reset My Online Default Font To Arial *Very Frustrating*

Hi. I am having an immensely frustrating problem that I can't seem to get fixed anywhere. I have asked about it already on Yahoo Answers, and made two questions asking about it on JustAnswer.com, if you're not familiar with the site, you pay money and are supposed to get expert answers to your question. I got some helpful info there that got me a bit closer to finding out what was wrong but I still did not get my answer, furthermore they seem to have lost interest in trying to help me, this is after I paid them good money. I can't get my work done with this annoying font situation bothering me, this is becoming a real albatross for me, and I cannot seem to get rid of it no matter what I do. Please, if anyone knows of a way that I can get this fixed, it would be much appreciated.

Here are the links to the two question threads of JustAnswer. Everything about the situation is already explained there, if you could please read through them, including my system specs, what versions and programs I'm using, etc.

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/25vfx-...-couldnt-answer

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/24xmc-...orer-displaying

To basically reiterate briefly in case you don't have time to read through all that (I hope you do, though) : My IE (Internet Explorer) is displaying the common font that is normally supposed to be on basic webpages, like wikipedia, spell-checking site "Orangoo Empire" ( http://orangoo.com/spell/ ) and others, which is normally set on every Vista machine I have ever been on to Arial, now in a font called Square 721 BT instead. Now I know you can go to Tools > Internet Options > Accessibility > Ignore font styles specifies on webpages and set it so everything appears as Arial, but that isn't what I want. I just want the things that are supposed to be Arial to appear as it. I just want it set back to my default for the things it is supposed to be my default for, and not for the things it is not supposed to be my default for. I have Windows Vista. I have been through a massive rigamarole trying to get it changed back to that. I cannot continue my work until it is. The things I have already attempted to get this fixed are all mentioned in those two JustAnswer threads, and are too numerous for me to remember or re-enumerate here. Please help me get this font off being my default! I would really be so grateful.

hello

have you tried going to

start >
default programs >
associate a file type or protocol with a program
scroll down to font. what is the default?
[attachment=24073:Untitled.jpg]

have you tried updating to IE8 ?
have you tried a different browser?

best of luck

Hi, thanks. I went to start > default programs > associate a file type or protocol with a program. The default is .fon , Font File , Windows Font Viewer. I don't think that helps me change the actual default font, just the program it opens with. I'm going to try downloading IE8 now and see if that helps. I don't want to switch to a different browser, I want to get my IE fixed. Something made the font default switch to this, and somewhere there has to be a simple setting to set it back to that, all I have to do is find someone who knows what it is. They didn't build the computer as some kind of magical, mysterious black box. There is some piece of programming telling it to do this, I just need to find it and change it.

TheFinalSon, on Jun 28 2009, 02:07 AM, said:

i certainly agree..

trying another browser wouldnt get rid of IE7 or 8 it would simply let you work on your problem without being so annoyed (maybe?)

and that is a very interesting choice of words in your 1st post. you said something. not someone have you done any complete scans on your machine?
ive never heard of this but not unlikely..

good luck

Alright well, sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. No what I meant was just simply that something on my computer was causing it, some program or something is causing this, I didn't mean like I thought it was some kind of sinister force like aliens or something. Just a very annoying, very difficult computer that refuses to do anything right. Why can't they just design a system that fixes itself? Seriously? I mean instead of giving you a frickin' error message and telling you what's wrong, which doesn't help anyone, why not write a program that automatically then goes and frickin' fixes that error itself which is what every user would want and like it to do and none of us would have to be here dealing with this crap at a place like this; not that isn't a very lovely place but wouldn't it be nice is systems had a little bit of ability to address their own problems? If it knows what the error is, why not just fix it itself?

*Frustrated Grunt* Anyway, yeah. So, I tried to install Internet Explorer 8, like you suggested. It wouldn't let me do it. I messed around with it for awhile, finally realized I needed to have Windows Vista Service Pack 2 installed first. Uggh. Fine. So I downloaded that. Only now it won't let me install that cuz it keeps telling me every time I try to install it, "The certificate for the signer of the message is invalid or not found." What the f@%k does that mean, and how do I fix it so I can it frickin' installed already and get this fixed? It's always something else with this thing, I feel like I'm on a damn easter egg hunt lol...

thats funny (not lol funny but funny)

both my pcs would not let me install sp2 without 1st going to IE8??

are you completely updated ? (with important updates not optional)

and i didnt mean aliens.(but now that you mention it!!) i meant maybe some kinda virus. and if you cant update that could be another sign.

what anti virus program are you running? can you update it?

BTW how old is pc? and how long have you had this problem? do you have recovery discs, recovery partition or both?

**edit** i just thought of something. maybe a little radical but here goes. what if you go to your documents create a new folder and move all fonts except arial? then IE cant use anything but. just a thought.

Alright well I tried running the complete virus scan as you suggested. I have Norton 360, by the way. That wasn't it, I had one tracking cookie on here, that was it.

So anyway now, do you know what it means that "The certificate for the signer of the message is invalid or not found.", and how I can fix it to be able to install the SP2?

The following sets all fonts for system applications and the OS shell to their defaults in Vista. To use it, copy the text exactly as written into notepad and select File>Save As and click the Save as type drop down menu then select All files and name the file fontfix.reg and save it to your desktop. Once that's done, double click the file to apply the changes, click Yes to the prompt and reboot:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

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

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

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

Thank you for this Exile! I tried it many multiple times, each time it told me after I clicked Yes that the keys had been added to the registry and so it sounded like it was fixed, but then when I actually restarted the computer and logged back on to the internet, it wasn't, the fonts were still the same. I copied the complete text and followed your instructions precisely. Do you have any idea what could be wrong?

Also, on the topic of trying to install SP2, do you have any idea what it means that "The certificate for the signer of the message is invalid or not found.", and how I might go about fixing it?

Are you logged in as an administrator? It sounds like it's having issues verifying digital signatures. Although more time consuming, you might try downloading the standalone installer for SP2 for your version of Vista and install it instead of Windows Update, perhaps it would repair this issue. You can get it here (choose the one appropriate to your Windows version):

• Service Pack 2 for 32 bit Vista
  
• Service Pack 2 for 64 bit Vista

To find out your version of Vista, right-click on Computer and select Properties and look for the text that says either "32 bit operating system" or "64 bit operating system".

After installing, please let me know how things are going and if the issue is fixed .

Not trying to hijack the thread but are you familiar with this error message Exile? (It posted this because it seems a similar issue to the digital signature above.) I have SP2 installed, but this is showing up in my event log (and causing crashes I'm pretty sure when i play COD5) with alarming regularity.

"Failed extract of third-party root list from auto update cab at: <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootstl.cab> with error: A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file."

In the event log it's listed as CAPI2 event id 11.

EDIT: oh and thanks for the script you psoted. I didn't need it but I saved it in my little abg of tricks for future use.

EDIT II: NM I THINK I may have found the answer here. I'm still doing the first step but at least I found a clue (on about page 6 of a google search.)

exile360, on Jul 3 2009, 12:45 AM, said:

Ok, no exile, I downloaded it again, (I had the 32-bit version) and it still gives me this same bleeping crap, "The certificate for the signer of the message is invalid or not found." AGAIN. You don't know how I can get rid of that?

Do you have the error number?

Did you know that Microsoft is offering FREE phone support for problems installing SP2? If you are interested in trying that route, let me know and I'll find the link again...........

Ok guys, sorry for the long wait. DeathStalker's link gave me some more info here. It's long, but it appears taht this can be caused if you have Comodo installed and the only resolution is to temporarily uninstall it (not just disable it) and install the Windows Updates, then reinstall Comodo if desired.

@ DeathStalker, there is no error number per se, the little designation that comes up for it if you click on (Details) is Error: TRUST_E_NO_SIGNER_CERT(0x80096002) Do you know how to fix that? If not, sure, I'd appreciate the phone number.

@ exile, I don't know what the h ell Comodo is, but I did a search for it and I don't have it installed on my computer. You know any other thing the problem could be?