Thanks 40hz. And my thanks (again) to all who've helped me solve the problem. I've posted this thread on a number of help forums over the past week, and you are the people who came up with The Answer - an answer I'm spreading to all the sites I've posted the question on, with full credit back here. Well deserved credit  :Thmbsup:!

@tomos: Bulls-Eye! While it doesn't change everything, the taskbar font remains the same, but all menus, including context menus, are in bold weight. And that includes IE. I set all the font settings I could to Trebuchet MS, bold weight, 11 pt. and it makes programs like IE use bold weight fonts; and PhotoDirector 5 works just fine using your technique.

Sincere thanks and appreciation for solving a problem I've struggled with for months.  :Thmbsup:

@MilesAhead:  I think from what I've read, that you have indeed found what I'm looking for. I am most appreciative. The other solution to the problem is to change the default Windows system font from Segoe to Trebuchet MS Bold (using the Windows 7 tutorial). This gives the bold weight I'm looking for. The trade-off is the loss of one program - Cyberlink's PhotoDirector (versions 4 & 5). Apparently the extra 'room' the Trebuchet font uses is too large for PhD and it therefore draws all the GUI boxes, but none of the required text to go into those boxes, i.e., instead of the various menu names on the GUI, there is a placeholder for the name but no text.

So far it is just that one program that has the problem, and since I have several other Photoshop-level programs (including Photoshop) it is not that big of a loss. The other trade-off, this time on the plus side, is that changing the default font to Trebuchet bold is that it cuts right across everything, e.g., the Taskbar text is bold weight, the Start Menu as well, context menus, and of course IE. I guess the question that now needs to be answered is what security risks are involved in using Maxthon 2 versus the (presumably) still under development Maxthon 3. Or perhaps conversely modifying the plug-in to be compatible with version 3 (in FF, changing 1 line of code fixes that problem on their browser).

Whichever approach I wind up using, thank you for giving me that option.
Regards,
BearPup