How do I get all my system fonts for Windows XP back? many programs won't work and Windows XP is all screwed up because the system fonts required for Windows XP to work properly are gone! one website told me to pull up command prompt and type sfc /scannow and reboot but my system fonts are still gone! I tried every fix I could find on Google and still no dice! how do I get those important font files back?

If you know someone with Windonws (XP or other), copy from the directory c:\windows\fonts the system fonts, at least :
Arial (all the "ari..." files)
Comic Sans
Courrier New ("cour...")
Garamond ("gara...")
Tahoma
Times New Roman ("times...")
Verdana
Impact
modern.fon
Lucida console (luco.ttf)
Lucida sans unicode (l_10646.ttf)
Microsoft Sans Serif (micross.ttf)
MTExtra
Monotype Sorts (Mtsorts.ttf)
Roman.fon
Symbol
webdings
windings
symbol.ttf et symbole.fon
MS LineDraw (linedraw.ttf)

In all cases, don't forget to get all the variations (bold, italic, etc.)

You can't copy installed fonts in the manner described by Menhir. The fonts will be corrupted during the process.

There is, however, a way it can be done. This is how someone who has those fonts can forward them to someone else:

1) Open a window of Windows Search. Search for all files and folders. Leave the 'All or part of the file name' field blank.

2) In the 'Look in:' list box, click the down arrow, and select 'Browse...'. In the Windows Explorer tree, browse for the location C:\Windows\Fonts, (or an alternative location, if your operating system keeps installed fonts in a different folder). Click the Search button. The search results will display all files in the installed fonts folder, including .ttf, .otf, and .fon system files.

3) Edit -> Select All all of the Search results, and copy the files. Create a new folder, and paste the files from the search results into the new folder.

4) Open the new folder, Edit -> Select All, and create an archive. Depending on the size of the archive, it can either be sent as an e-mail attachment, cut/ pasted to a portable drive, or uploaded to a file hosting web site, to transfer the archive from person #1 to person #2.

Person #2 can extract the files from the archive, and install them in their fonts folder.

Note: you may want to do the installation of the fonts one by one, as your current operating system may have updated versions of some of these fonts. If the file names are the same, the new versions, (ie: the ones from XP), will overwrite the version that are currently installed.

A similar procedure can be used, if you want to have the font names and file names match. To do that, follow steps #1-3 above. Instead of step #4, rename the copies font files to match the internal font names, Delete the installed fonts, and cut/ paste the renamed font files into the installed fonts folder. I did this with Windows XP some years ago. The only fonts that I couldn't rename/ reinstall were Tahoma, Microsoft Sans Serif, and the font I currently had selected for Notepad.

First thing which you need to do if you lose all your fonts is to check list of official original Windows XP fonts. You can see the list on Windows XP Microsoft web-page here : https://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/winxp.htm

When you see the list download all of those fonts (you have them all around the internet for free) and save them inside of one folder on your Desktop. Installing fonts which you download is a pretty simple thing and you can made it just by copying font files in fonts folder. If you never did that before then I advice you to check tutorial where is step by step described how to install new and old fonts : http://pc-problem-solutions.blogspot.com/2013/10/install-new-fonts-on-your-windows-xp.html