Tuesday, March 11, 2003 :::
 
Question :I would like to add more fonts to my computer. The info I got to do this said to click Start | Settings | Control Panel and then double-click Fonts, and then go to the file menu and click "Install New Font." When I go to the File menu, I do not have the menu item "Install New Font." I am running Windows 98 SE with Microsoft Word, Works, and Publisher installed. How do I solve this problem?

Answer: The good news is that you are following the proper instructions. Another way to do this is to copy your fonts (using Windows Explorer) to the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, but I have to warn you that I have occasionally seen this last method NOT register a font properly.

Having mentioned that, let's get back into your missing Install New Font menu item. This can happen for three reasons: the system and read-only attributes are no longer set on the Fonts folder, the Fontext.dll file is missing/damaged, or the Desktop.ini file may be missing/damaged. We'll start with the easiest fix first, and that is repairing the attributes on the Fonts folder. For this, follow these steps:

Click Start | Run, type "command" (sans quotes), and click OK.
At the command window, type "cd\windows" (sans quotes) and hit Enter. You'll then be at the C:\Windows directory.
Now type in "attrib +s +r fonts" (sans quotes).
Now, just restart Windows, and your Install New Font menu item should be back.
If this doesn't work, then it may be a missing or damaged Fontext.dll file. To fix this, do the following:
Restart Windows, and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.
At the command prompt, type "cd\windows\system" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\System folder.
Now, type "dir fontext.dll" (sans quotes) and hit Enter.
(If your machine does NOT have a Fontext.dll file, then proceed to the next step in these instructions.) If it DOES find a Fontext.dll file, then you need to type "rename fontext.dll fontext.old" (sans quotes), and hit Enter to rename your damaged Fontext.dll file. Type "exit" (sans quotes) to restart back into Windows.
To recreate your Fontext.dll file, we need to extract a good copy of it from your Windows 98 install files. Click Start | Run, type "sfc" (sans quotes) and click OK.
Click "Extract one file from installation disk" and in the "Specify the system file you would like to restore" box, type "C:\Windows\System\Fontext.dll" (sans quotes).
Click Start, and in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now, browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab files. (On some machines you can find the Cab files in C:\Cabs or in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.
Click OK and follow the on-screen instructions. When all this is done just restart Windows.
If all this doesn't work, then we still have one more possible fix: replacing the Desktop.ini file. To do this, follow these steps:
Restart Windows and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.
At the command prompt, type "cd\windows\fonts" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.
Type "rename desktop.ini desktop.old" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to rename your damaged desktop.ini file.
Type "exit" (sans quotes) to restart into Windows. Now, we need to extract a good copy of the Desktop.ini file from your Windows 98 install files.
Click Start | Run, then type "sfc" (sans quotes) and click OK.
Click "Extract one file from installation disk," and in the "Specify the system file you would like to restore" box type "C:\Windows\Fonts\Desktop.ini" (sans quotes).
Click Start, and in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab files. All that is left is to restart Windows.


::: posted by Muhammad at 2:10 AM

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