Advice from a techie needed

[downside]

Hi Suttonrust

The restore feature only works if you have created a 'restore point'. 

Fonts are kept in c:\windows\fonts

You could get someone to attach the Arial fonts in an email and then put them in the directory listed above.  I have 10 Arial files of different dates listed in my directory.

downside

[suttontrust]

Getting a bit dizzy.  I have no problems with getting a new version of Arial.  Someone lent me a disk of fonts, but when I tried to install Arial (using a handy freebie installer) it wouldn't let me because I already had Arial installed.  That's why I contemplated uninstalling..

[RJ_Paton]

It should be possible to remove the fons and re install them

Removing Fonts
To completely remove fonts from the hard disk:
1.   Click Start, and then click Run.
2.   Type %windir%\fonts, and then click OK.
3.   Click the font you want to remove. To select more than one font at a time, press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each font.
4.   On the File menu, click Delete.
5.   When you receive the "Are you sure you want to delete these fonts?" prompt, click Yes.

from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314960/en-us

[downside]

Hi Sutton

You are using certain fonts when you are running Windows, so there may be a problem trying to remove a file which is in use.   Just remove the Arial fonts rather than the entire directory.

My Arial fonts look like this:-

17/07/2004  19:39           367,112 arial.ttf
17/07/2004  19:39           352,224 arialbd.ttf
23/08/2001  13:00           226,748 arialbi.ttf
23/08/2001  13:00           207,808 ariali.ttf
28/05/1998  14:38           134,188 ARIALN.TTF
28/05/1998  14:38           139,056 ARIALNB.TTF
28/05/1998  14:38           138,468 ARIALNBI.TTF
28/05/1998  14:38           141,328 ARIALNI.TTF

As you can see some of them are fairly old as they haven't changed much in several years. 

There may be a problem with the Attributes.  I noticed they are unchecked.  If this causes a problem then try right clicking the files and changing the properties to Archive.

downside

[fiddler]

I have a duplicate Fonts file (well, a bit more than 'duplicate' actually, if you know what I mean) that I keep in My Documents.

I just copy it backwards and forwards between computers if the main fonts file has only the lesser / normal ones in it.

I open the duplicate / select all /  and 'copy' with the mouse, then I open the the main fonts file in Control Panel, delete what I know is messed up (if any) and click in between the font file, right click and paste.

If a font has not been deleted, it won't let the replacement be loaded.....but it's a damn good way of finding out which ones you need to delete.

I reckon if you deleted all the ones that are messed up, and selectively copied the new ones in the same method you will be OK.

ALBERT

[suttontrust]

I now have a lot more fonts installed than I ever had.  I'm just frightened of deleting or uninstalling Arial in order to install another version.