Thanks aps.

I checked and both of those options were already selected.  I'm wondering if this is more of an overall problem since it affects not only Internet Explorer but also AOL and the chat function in a number of games I play.  That's why I was guessing it was an XP issue as opposed to just Internet Explorer.  Maybe it's some other kind of glitch that just happens to be affecting my fonts but that isn't really a font change.

Any other ideas?  Thanks again.

Matt

Check your Display Properties. Rt. Click on your desktop and click on Properties. Under Display Properties >Appearance check to see if you have these default settings. 

Windows and Buttons=Windows XP Style

Colr Scheme=Default Blue

Font Size=Normal

then click on Advance-Under Item Desktop=Default

The default Windows 2000/XP shell font (for Windows Explorer) is Tahoma, and the default system font (for System Properties, Device Manager, etc.) is MS Sans Serif. Back -up your Registry first, the only way to change them is to alter the Registry. Open Regedit and go to:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes 

Edit the "MS Shell Dlg" string value [REG_SZ] in the right hand pane, and modify its "Microsoft Sans Serif" default value to match any other font name installed on your system (e.g., Tahoma). Then close Regedit and restart your computer for the change to take effect.

Might also need to change the value in

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

            *** Any changing of the Registry can make your system inoperable, do so at your own risk***

Message Edited by magikilwizard on 04-01-2004 02:01 PM

I use Windows classic style instead of Windows XP style, but that should not make a difference to the font.

You could try right click desktop, Appearance tab, click advanced. In the item box, choose each item in turn and check that for those that have a font ascribed it is Tahoma (or whatever font you prefer, of course). The default font size is 10pt. If you change anything there, when you've finished, save it as a new theme and make that your default.

@magikilwizard​ 20 years later i themed my windows 11 to look like XP and changed firefox so that it uses tahoma