troubleshooting - Windows 8.1 Text Showing Up as Random Artifacts

I had this very random and very debilitating bug occur in Windows 8.1 today and wanted to document it so others can learn how to fix it and maybe someone knows how to prevent it that can provide some advice.

Upon starting my PC, all of my text looked like this picture:

The only thing I know that happened before this is that I tried to install a ttc (Avenir Next Condensed.ttc) font to be used with a Photoshop design file that upon clicking "Install", windows said "this file does not appear to be a valid font". It should be noted that this font was installed on another computer before being transferred to mine (ie it works on another computer, not Windows 8.1, though.)

It also appears this could be a bug related to Visual Studio 2013. (My entire project was missing. - Fortunately, I checked in my code before turning it off... Thank god...)

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/d77274a2-bb0a-4dfa-b4ab-a83d195940d6/windows-7-symbols-instead-of-text?forum=w7itprogeneral Shows a solution of copying over fonts from another computer as well as others experience this issue seemingly at random.

To see this bug in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=525yPBGEfjU

Answer

For the case where Windows destroyed its own font data, you could :

1. Get the contents of C:\Windows\Fonts from another PC


2. Copy these fonts into a temporary folder


3. Use regedit to delete (after saving) the contents of
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts


4. Reboot


5. Copy the fonts into C:\Windows\Fonts


6. Re-install the fonts by opening Control Panel / Fonts, and from the File menu select 'Install New Fonts...' and add the fonts from the temporary folder.