Why do I have weird characters showing up under my desktop icons?
by Guest Geek on August 17, 2009Q: I have weird characters showing up under my Icons on my Windows XP desktop after a re-boot. Can this be corrected?
Q: I have weird characters showing up under my Icons on my Windows XP desktop after a re-boot. Can this be corrected?
- Right click on your desktop
- Click Properties, you should be on the ‘Themes’ tab
- In the Theme: dropdown box, select ‘Windows XP’
- Click Okay
You will probably need to reset your wallpaper if you changed it, but this should correct the font problem. Let me know if it works for you.
Mark says: on August 17, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Tried that, it did not work. The charaters are on menu items as well.
bbrumm says: on August 17, 2009 at 1:43 pm
When I type in word, IE etc the characters are there as well. H’s come out as black dots, a is a check mark, z is a square..
bbrumm says: on August 17, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Try going to Start>Control Panel> Regional and Language Options.
Make sure the drop down box in Standards and Formats says “English (United States)”. If not, change it.
Mark says: on August 17, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Is there a combination of key strokes I may have hit that I need to reverse to correct?
bbrumm says: on August 17, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Probably not, this isn’t the type of thing that would be caused by hitting the wrong button.
If the Regional and Language Options changes don’t help I’d suggest you try a System Restore to when the text was working correctly.
Microsoft has instructions on how to do a system restore here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx
Mark says: on August 17, 2009 at 2:09 pm