I install the XP reg hack on all my XP machines.  Everything works flawlessly and my XP machines are as stable as ever. 

I wonder if anyone else’s fonts are messed up pursuant to today’s Microsoft Update.  I don’t know that it’s related to the POS hack; I think it may be the Office updates that caused the problem.  On certain web pages the fonts are displaying wrong.  In Microsoft Word (Office 2002), the Times New Roman font looks weird.  This is apparent on three Windows XP machines I’ve updated (several machines that I haven’t yet updated still look fine).

Edited February 11, 201511 yr by bluebolt

So I uninstalled today’s updates one at a time, starting with the Office Updates, then the IE update; it was the last removal that fixed the problem (uninstalling Security Update for Windows XP KB3013455).

Bluebolt - how does one uninstall that update? I've never uninstalled an XP update. Thanks.

EDIT - I am uninstalling using the typical Add-Remove Programs and checking the box to show updates. The wizard says it might affect three other updates, but I am uninstalling anyway and will then recheck updates. Thanks.

Edited February 11, 201511 yr by glnz

You could post a small screenshot illustrating how exactly a page with Times New Roman at a few different point sizes looks.

I am uninstalling using the typical Add-Remove Programs and checking the box to show updates. The wizard says it might affect three other updates, but I am uninstalling anyway and will then recheck updates. Thanks.

 

Yes, I just searched the listings in Add/Remove Programs (must have “Show Updates” checked, of course), and found the ones dated today, and uninstalled from there. 

I also received similar messages regarding other affected updates, during uninstallation of both the IE update and the one that worked (the Windows XP Security Update).

You could post a small screenshot illustrating how exactly a page with Times New Roman at a few different point sizes looks.

 

Fonts affected were affected in Word documents, certain Windows windows, and all across the web--in other words, the whole computer.

 

I don't know how well this image will come across, but...

The problematic font (the one on the bottom) displays as sort of weak, almost broken looking, though dark enough:

 

The MS KB article says "After you install security update 3013455, you may notice some text quality degradation .... only occurs on systems that are running Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP2." And that they are researching and will post more info.

Pretty bad if it affects Word and other programs.

The MS KB article says "After you install security update 3013455, you may notice some text quality degradation .... only occurs on systems that are running Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP2." And that they are researching and will post more info. Pretty bad if it affects Word and other programs.

 

Yikes.  I’m using Windows XP Professional, fully updated including POS, Word 2002 with 2007 Compatibility Pack.  Again, yikes.

bluebolt - almost same here. XP Pro SP3, same updates, Word 2003 with the 2007 compatibility pack and its updates. But just now a test document did not show problems when it printed. (Did you mean Word 2003?)

By the way, there's a good Ed Bott article on today's updates that indicates that maybe our hack isn't going to bring us everything we need.

See

http://www.zdnet.com/article/february-2015-patch-tuesday/?tag=nl.e589&s_cid=e589&ttag=e589&ftag=TREc64629f

Thank you for posting the sample. It looks like the second line doesn't make use of font hinting, essential instructions in quality fonts that cause lines to intersect at right angles and form symmetric circles to improve readability at low resolutions.

Maybe Microsoft counts on users having ClearType enabled where the issue is less pronounced. I'd consider the update buggy and broken. One more reason not to blindly accept updates in general.

bluebolt - there's more info here, including maybe a way to undo the font-related protection.

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS15-010

If you do the undo, let us know the result.

You've no idea how glad I was to see this thread this morning!

I installed all the updates yesterday, and my fonts were badly screwed up.

I've uninstalled KB3013455 and everything now seems to be back to normal.

That update seems to just replace win32k.sys.

It seemed to me experimenting yesterday that it was the ClearType system that was messed up, switching it off resulted in the fonts returning reasonably to normal, switching it on made them look far worse, to the point of illegibility in some cases,rather than better!

Let's hope MS fix the problem soon, as it's obviously happening on some supported systems as well as on XP.

You've no idea how glad I was to see this thread this morning!

I installed all the updates yesterday, and my fonts were badly screwed up.

I've uninstalled KB3013455 and everything now seems to be back to normal.

That update seems to just replace win32k.sys.

It seemed to me experimenting yesterday that it was the ClearType system that was messed up, switching it off resulted in the fonts returning reasonably to normal, switching it on made them look far worse, to the point of illegibility in some cases,rather than better!

Let's hope MS fix the problem soon, as it's obviously happening on some supported systems as well as on XP.

Thanks for your information.

Too late for me to read this and I wasted whole day battling with it, I even opened a question in superuser.

http://superuser.com/questions/876542/ugly-font-in-xp-how-can-i-restore-it/876668#876668

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-windows_update/kb3013455-breaks-font-smoothing/0400147f-fe2e-4d53-8b35-1a7a06962087?tm=1423669336226

Edited February 11, 201511 yr by roytam1