It sounds like your Fonts folder lost its desktop.ini
, which is part of what makes it special. Open an administrative command prompt, navigate to C:\Windows\Fonts
, then type the following commands:
echo. > desktop.ini
to create a blank file nameddesktop.ini
notepad desktop.ini
to open that file in an administrative Notepad instance
Paste the following into that Notepad window, then save:
[.ShellClassInfo] CLSID=
Log off and back on. If that didn't fix your problem, then the Registry lost its entries for the Fonts shell folder, which is another component that makes it special. Open a new instance of Notepad (not administrative) and paste this into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\] @="Microsoft Windows Font Folder" "System.Software.TasksFileUrl"="Internal" "AppID"="" "InfoTip"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,\ 6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,\ 00,53,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,\ 2d,00,32,00,32,00,39,00,32,00,30,00,00,00 "LocalizedString"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,\ 6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,\ 00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,\ 2c,00,2d,00,32,00,32,00,39,00,38,00,31,00,00,00 "System.ApplicationName"="Microsoft.Fonts" "DisplayName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,\ 00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\ 5c,00,66,00,6f,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,\ 00,2d,00,31,00,39,00,39,00,00,00 "System.ControlPanel.Category"=dword:00000001 "Icon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\ 00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,66,00,\ 6f,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,31,00,30,\ 00,00,00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\\DefaultIcon] @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\ 00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,66,00,6f,00,\ 6e,00,74,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\\Hierarchical] @="0" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\\InProcServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\ 00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,66,00,6f,00,\ 6e,00,74,00,65,00,78,00,74,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00 "ThreadingModel"="Apartment" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\\ShellFolder] "Attributes"=dword:a0000000 "WantsForParsing"=""
(I just exported the branch of my Registry that deals with the Fonts special folder. You can check that against the appropriate branch of a clean Registry if you're paranoid.)
Save the file with a .reg
extension, then double-click it in Explorer. Confirm the Registry merge and restart your computer.