5.6.3 Recovering Soft Fonts from a WIN.INI Change

Sometimes you need to remove the contents of your WINDOWS directory and
reinstall Windows. In the process of doing this, you could lose all the soft font
information. To prevent losing data:

1.Build an FINSTALL.DIR file.

Using Windows, select the Printers icon from Control Panel, select the HP LaserJet printer that uses PCL, and choose the Setup command.

Once inside the driver-specific dialog box, choose the Fonts button to call the Printer Font Installer. The fonts you plan to save should be listed in the left list box. Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys while choosing the Exit button. The
installer prompts for a filename and path. Choose the OK button to accept the name of the FINSTALL.DIR file. Then, exit Windows.

2.Reinstall Windows.

Perform whatever steps are necessary to reinstall Windows (that is, remove everything in the WINDOWS directory and run the Windows Setup program).

3.Install from the directory to itself to get the soft fonts listed.

Run the Printer Font Installer on the new computer through the Control Panel's Printers icon. Select the HP LaserJet printer that uses PCL, and then choose the Setup command.

From the driver-specific dialog box, choose the Fonts button to call the installer. If the Fonts button is not highlighted, then you need to select a printer
that supports soft fonts (lower-left list box in the driver-specific dialog box). Choose Add fonts and specify \PCLFONTS as the source for copying fonts. If your fonts are stored in another directory (such as FONTS or PCLPFM), then specify that directory.

Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys while selecting all the fonts in the right list box. Choose the Add button between the two list boxes. The installer prompts for a target directory. This must be equivalent to the directory from which you are installing the fonts. If you are installing from \PCLFONTS, then choose the OK button to accept \PCLFONTS as the target directory. Otherwise, change the name to that of the directory that contains the soft fonts (such as FONTS or PCLPFM).

The installer then shuffles the fonts very quickly from the right list box to
the left list box. It does not copy any fonts; it simply updates the WIN.INI
file. If this does not happen quickly, then you probably did not build an FINSTALL.DIR file as described in Step 1, or did not install fonts from
and to the same directory.