Protected system fonts

There are some fonts used by the Operating system for its own uses and you cannot delete them.  The list of fonts that show up in word is a default list and you cannot hide them. 

No, this was NOT helpful.  This is absolutely insane!!!!!!!    The only answer you gave was how to change the DEFAULT font!!!!?????  Give me a ******* break!!  I've been using Microsoft products since before there WAS Windows.  I know how to change the default font....duh.

As you so eloquently put....."used by the Operating system for its own uses"....  For God's sake you're not talking to a 6-year-old.  The operating systems isn't a proper noun, it doesn't need to be capitalized.  It isn't a sentient being; it doesn't have ..."its own uses". 

Not only is it demeaning to be given the runaround -- that's a Microsoft Office question, so you should post there, then when I post in the Office section to be told that is an Operating System issue -- but the runaround does not answer the question.  There is no programming reason that all the Operating System  fonts have to be in a "default list" within Word, so that and the user "cannot hide them".  Are you telling me that even though Word is one of the most customizable word processing programs ever put on the market, you cannot control which fonts you see for selection?  Why not?  I neither want nor need a single default font.  I want the small set of fonts from which I would work.

The fact that some font is needed in Egypt or Russia or the nation of Wingdings should not determine whether I have to see that font.  Any smart programer should be able to have an "opt in" or "opt out" system regarding the system fonts from which I select.

Microsoft used to be responsive to customers.  Why should I get this runaround now?

Which fonts have you tried to uninstall without success? Although there are some "Windows core fonts" that it might be unwise to uninstall (because applications are based on the assumption that they are available), I can't imagine that there are more than just a small handful (fonts used in the application UI) that would be "protected."

Ms Barnhill,

First, let me thank you for your attention to this matter.  I believe you will agree with me that 95 (ninety-five) is not what most people would call a "handful".  I did my best to separate out and count the fonts that could not be deleted.  I definitely missed a few, and I also see some I could identify as necessary, i.e., MSGOTHIC.TTC.  However, I compiled a list that ranges from APARAJ.TTF to VRINDAB.TTF and even includes "Plantagenet Cherokee Regular". 

Please, please can you help?

Denise Harrigan

Well, I was dubious about Plantagenet Cherokee (since I'd never heard of it), but sure enough, according to http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/font.aspx?FMID=1628, apparently it's supplied with Windows 7 (and includes the Cherokee Unicode range). Aparajita is Hindi, Vrinda is Bengali, MS Gothic is Japanese, etc., confirming your statement about their being nonroman fonts. I just pulled up Word 2010 on my Windows 7 laptop and can confirm what you're seeing (in Word's font list)--made even more annoying by the fact that you can't choose to display the font names in a single font.

According to http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/product.aspx?PID=161, these fonts are installed by Windows 7, not Office, which makes it clear that this is not a Word/Office question. It also, sadly, means that there's probably no way around the problem by reinstalling Office and omitting "international features" or "support for nonroman scripts" or the like.

There may be a solution, but, if there is, it will be found in a Windows forum. I could move this thread to Windows, but given the length it has already reached without a solution, it might be better for you to start afresh with a question at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_install-windows_7?page=1.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful--or more encouraging!

In my initial post, I explained that I found the original question in the Windows forum.  That question was written by a user named Michael.  In the response he got from Microsoft Office Andre aka Andre Ziegler, was the directive to put this in the Office Forum because it was not a Windows issue.

So you see, this runaround has already been done.  While I certainly don't blame you for reading the lengthy initial message that explained this, I'm afraid your helpful intention reaches another road-block.  I'm absolutely beyond frustrated here.  So much so, I'm considering leaving Microsoft to snide little Andre and his non-helpful friends. I just can't believe how far Microsoft has fallen from the company Bill Gates started.  I've been a Microsoft fan since MS-DOS was first introduced.  This is about the end for me.....this nonsense about the fonts is inexcusable.

Please, if you know of anyone that might actually deign to help me, I would be a Suzanne S. Barnhill fan forever :)

Denise

Okay, you made me look. A quick Google search was turning up replies that suggested that you might just have to live with all those fonts, but see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-your-font-settings, which looks very promising. There's also a third-party article (with screen shots) at http://www.techtalkz.com/windows-7/516051-how-preview-hide-delete-fonts-windows-7-a.html; another at http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1078-fonts-show-hide.html.

I'm afraid all three links point to exactly the same place, instructions to Show/Hide the fonts within the Control Panel.  Yes, there is a Windows feature to hide fonts not within your language set.  However, there is one glaring problem.  It doesn't work.  The only thing that hides is it grays out the icon of the 95 fonts I wrote about.  The fonts remain and for the grand insult, the fonts remain in the Word pull-down list.  Ta-da!  It seems that Microsoft doesn't consider it important to actually have Windows features work for their own programs.

There is something glaringly wrong with your statement that I might have to live with all these fonts.  Doesn't it seem a little backwards that because Windows features doesn't work with its own programs that the CUSTOMER who paid $ has to live with Microsoft mistakes?

try running 7-zip file manager as an administrator and navigate to c:\windows\fonts and try to delete them or maybe there are some registry tweaks?

try running 7-zip file manager as an administrator and navigate to c:\windows\fonts and try to delete them or maybe there are some registry tweaks?

That's the solution! Edit the registry. Directions (from memory, it's been a couple of years since I did this):

1) Before you do, copy the fonts from Windows/Fonts to a separate drive (USB/Flash, external drive, CD-ROM, anything BUT your computer's hard drive) so that you have a copy in case some application wants to use Batang, for example. You want to be able to reinstall it. And don't save them in a folder on your computer but instead on some external drive so that Windows doesn't get confused and bring them back into your system.

2) Run RegEdit and find the section that lists the fonts. Delete the entries of fonts you don't want to appear in your font menus. Just make sure you retain those that are the usual Windows fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, MS Outlook, MS Serif, MS Sans Serif) and common fonts used on websites and in documents (Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, Calibri, Cambria, etc.). 

Here's a link to an archived section of our website that lists Windows system fonts. Although the info is 10 years old, these still are the basic system fonts but there may be more since this list was created. http://www.pubcom.com/tools/tools_systemfonts.htm

3) I think you then need to reboot the system. (Doing this from memory, sorry)

4) And then you should be able to delete the actual font files from the Windows/Fonts folder. When you deleted them from the Registry, they essentially became "unprotected" allowing you to delete the actual font file.

I agree with you: this is a royal PITA (pain in the annatomy). I don't want Khmer, Ethiopian, Cherokee, Lao, Thai, and a bazillion-and-one dialects of Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Japaneses fonts on my system. (It's great that these language fonts are provided by MS for folks who speak those languages. But I don't and therefore don't need those fonts cluttering up my computer.)

Why Windows installs them by default is beyond my reasoning. And why they are PROTECTED system fonts is even more irrational (you can't delete them from the Fonts folder or fonts control panel). When Windows is installed, the user should be given the option of installing the fonts of various languages.

I have to also install Adobe's Creative Suite and when I'm done, the total font list from Windows 7, Office 2010, and Adobe Creative Suite is just under 1,000 fonts. That's a lot of time spent loading into my computer's memory, and a long scrolling font menu in all my applications.

There's got to be a better way, eh? <g>