How to fix font display problem in Safari for Windows
If you installed Safari and discovered that fonts on the menu bar, menus and some web pages display as random characters and numbers, making the browser unusable, there’s good news: there’s a pretty easy fix. The problem is apparently caused by a conflict between the Lucida Grande font that come with Safari’s installation program and the same font on your Windows system. Here’s what to do about it:
- Navigate in Windows Explorer to the Safari installation folder, which is typically Program FilesSafari.
- Double click the folder named Safari.resources.
- Find the two font files named Lucida Grande Bold.ttf and Lucida Grande.ttf.
- Rename the files with a different file extension (or you can just delete them).
This may fix the problem, but if it doesn’t, there’s another, more complicated fix you can try: editing the fonts.plist file. You’ll find instructions here.
And if you have a problem with no fonts showing up at all, the problem may be that you don’t have the Lucida Grande fonts. You can download them from the link on this page. You’ll also find another font fix there. (Thanks to Blake A. for this tip.)
Can’t start Vista after installing XP
QUESTION: Okay, looks like I really messed up. I got a new Vista computer but I wanted to be able to run XP some of the time, because I have a couple of applications that wouldn’t run in Vista. So I thought I’d be clever, since I have lots of disk space, and just install XP to dual boot with Vista. But after I installed XP, I could boot into XP but not Vista. Now I didn’t intend to get rid of Vista altogether. Is there hope or do I have to start all over to get Vista back? – Dennis L.
ANSWER: It always goes a lot more smoothly if you install operating systems for a multi- boot configuration in chronological order, with the earliest installed first. Unfortunately, you couldn’t do that because Vista was already on the machine. Vista uses a new startup method, where boot information is stored in a Boot Configuration Database (BCD) store. It doesn’t recognize boot.ini, which is the file XP uses for booting the OS. When you installed XP, the XP Setup program overwrote the Master Boot Record and boot files.
But all is not lost. You can restore the Vista MBR and boot code from the Vista installation DVD. When you do that, you’ll be able to boot into Vista – but not XP. However, you can restore that ability by creating a new entry in the BCD boot file to point to the XP operating system. Then you’ll be able to choose the OS you want from a boot menu at startup. You can find Microsoft’s step by step instructions for both processes here. Happy dual booting!
Deb Shinder