System Restore no longer works (Activate Windows?)

[Guest]

I use WinXp Home. Dell laptop. 2 1/2 years old. Never any problems.

Yesterday I tried to create a smaller font list font list for Windows-based
applications.

My plan was:

1) Rename the "Fonts" directory (in c:\Windows) to "Fonts_02"
2) Create a new directory called "Fonts"
3) Copy my few selected fonts from "Fonts_02" to "Fonts"
4) Restart Windows.

The plan could not be implemented because Windows would not allow "Fonts" to
be renamed to "Fonts_02".

I right-clicked on "Fonts" > Properties, and tried to remove "Read-only". I
didn't think it worked.

I right-clicked on "Windows" > Properties, and tried the same thing. Again,
I don't think it worked.

So I abandoned the plan.

To be on the safe side, I checked "Read-only" first for Windows, then for
Fonts.

I thought I was back to where I was originally.

This morning when I rebooted, I got an instruction to "Activate this copy of
Windows".

I guessed it might be because I was doing things in the Windows directory,
so I tried to do a System Restore to two days ago. On clicking Next, nothing
happened. I waited 10 minutes, Still nothing happened.

I repeated the last steps,but in Safe mode. Still Windows Restore would not
operate.

I'm quite happy to activate Windows, but I don't want to do it now (I'm at
work), because my system CD is at home, and I may be asked for it. I can at
least work for the rest of the day until I get home.

Can anyone explain what's happening?

Regards,
Alan

 

[Guest]

First thing: Uncheck the "Read-only" box on the Windows directory and allow
it to propogate to remove that setting. The "Read-only" check box actual
does nothing for the folder itself, it just tells all the system to set the
files to "Read-only". Leaving the check box in the default grey state causes
the files to take their own check box independantly. In other words, by
checking that box you told the OS to only read all its system files and
config files, don't attempt to edit them. This is the worst form of security
and a hold over from the ol' DOS days.

Hopefully, Dell set your system up with NTFS drive rather than FAT for the
file system. Assuming its the native, more-secure NTFS, there is true
file-level security that would mean your files are secured indepandantly of
that little check box.

As for fonts, the reason why you can't rename the FONTS folder is the OS is
using the FONTS in there to display windows, show web pages, and label the
icons of the GUI. If you were to rename that folder, the OS wouldn't be able
to display any text. If you really don't want certain fonts, make a new
folder somewhere on your hard drive and move the non-system fonts you don't
want into that folder.

HTH
-SMFX