icons show script

[crazysurfer]

Windows XP Home OS
A friend's computer shows some kind of script ( I think it's script anyway ) on every icon he clicks on. By script I mean it shows the little symbols, smiley faces, dots, etc...

Maybe some kind of virus??? He put the XP cd in and was going to try to repair the os, again, nothing but scripts.

Any ideas???
Thanks in advance.

[HyperLink]

someone deleted the MS Sans Serif font type, or the default text is set to something wierd.


or all of his files just have screwy names...

[crazysurfer]

Thanks HyperLink,
He never figured out what is was but a complete format and clean install fixed the problem.
He also told me that problem had occured once before.
I think he downloads too many "Free" things and gets troubles from them.

[john_phoenix]

I had this problem under WIN98 and the cure was to delete the SHELLICONCACHE file.
I now run XP the the file is called ICONCACHE.DB I dont know if deleting the file will recover the icons as 98 did.