Windows 10: Fonts not Found in programs, but placeholders are in the list

Good morning,

My mum has recently stepped into an interesting problem. She has had many run ins with viruses and her computer has been restored many times. She runs a stenciling business, and uses her PC to design and cut the stencils she uses. As such, she has a huge collection of fonts. A few weeks ago, more than half of her fonts simply disappeared; there was a gap in the drop down font list in all of her programs where those fonts should be, and when they were moused over, a name would come up along with (font not found), and would be displayed in a default kind of script. Some of those fonts, when selected, would type in the default kind of text, some displayed nothing, and some caused the view of Microsoft word to suddenly shift and change, which I thought was weird. A few days later all of the fonts mystically came back, and then, this week, they disappeared again. Looking at the font folder, I couldn't find any evidence of the missing fonts, even after displaying hidden files. I'm wondering if they're housed somewhere else and are somehow in the list file for the fonts, but the path is somehow broken or lost. Any ideas about what has happened?

One: is it possible to restore these fonts, and find where they might have been hiding?
Two: if not (as I realize these details are nebulous), is it possible to remove the "missing" fonts from the list so that it isn't so cluttered, and she can begin rebuilding it?
Three: how might I back up these font files so that she can restore them in the event of another viral infection that causes a computer wipe?

Thank you all for your assistance.

:)

 

Windows 10 Pro , Most of the fonts are not in the system

Try performing a repair upgrade.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki...

 

Windows 10 Pro , Most of the fonts are not in the system

Hi

I am using win10 pro, Office 2016 pro as well for mails i am using lotus notes 9.0.1 sametime version with fix pack 10

Contents of my lots of mails is not appearing because the what the fint used by sender is not comatiable / not in my OS. Same issue is in MS office.

Lots of word files/ PPT as well excel, data is not appearing .

I bought HP elitebook 840 G4, as on 1st feb 2018.

Kindly help me to fix this issue asap. i am not able to work properly in my new machine.

Rgds

Mukesh Bansal

9317584985

 

Backup and restore:
Backup and Restore - FontExpert

or
shell:fonts
C:\Windows\Fonts
- regularly back this up using a free backup program or a simple scheduled script for example.

Given the frequency with which the PC seems to be exposed to viruses I would suggest
a. look into how it's being used
b. better and more robust protection
c. Use disk imaging (which we recommend strongly and repeatedly so you
- can recover from infections
- an unbootable PC
- insoluble and intractable problems
- even a failed disk.

by restoring your PC to a previously working state.

E.g. Macrium Reflect (Free) + its boot medium + external storage for image sets.

The disk images also act as backups from which you can retrieve files and folders.

 

Thank you for the backup tools. I had planned to set up a backup external hard drive today because of the problems she has. With an online business, she gets emails from "customers" of all sorts, and is just a bit naive in some of the emails she opens, which leads to infections.

Will the font back up and restore listed above solve the problem with the font list, and those marked as "not found?" Since those fonts were not found in the font folder, I'm assuming those will not be recouped through this process. Is that what is likely to happen? Thanks.

 

I've made no comment about the functional aspects of the fonts, only possible backup approaches.

Disk imaging provides a way of restoring whole partitions or disks, and option Windows Backup in Macrium R backs up all partitions comprising Windows- so is also a worst case way of recovering completely from viruses.

Clearly her AV must be inadequate to the task, although no AV is foolproof of course.

If she uses web mail rather than a client, you could use a sandboxed browser- Avast (free) includes one such.

 

Backup imagine on an external HD and more robust Antivirus software is now installed. Anyone have any ideas about the fonts directory?

 

From the tutorial section here (free to browse and search) try
Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

See
Windows 10 Tutorial Index Windows 10 Tutorials
for a searchable list

You can try reregistering your fonts. I came across this:
FontReg - Windows Font Registration Installation Utility

but font technology has changed over the years. A tool of this type might help... but there remains the question of what's causing your unusual problem.