Removing foreign language fonts

Anonymous
2009-10-30T16:13:49+00:00

Does anyone know of a way to remove the many foreign language fonts from Windows 7? There wasn't an option to exclude them during setup. I've tried deleting them, but Windows tells me that they are system fonts which cannot be deleted. I've also tried "Hiding" them, but they still show up in the font list in Office and other programs. All I want and need are the basic English language fonts. Having to wade through dozens of useless (to me) fonts is a major annoyance. There should be a way to exclude them from my system if I don't need them.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2009-12-05T14:33:12+00:00

Hello mcbarker69,

The reason that I did not know the fonts in question is because no particular fonts were mentioned, and I had gone into fonts and removed a couple foreign fonts with no problem. However that being said, in order to remove the fonts that are being referred to follow these steps:

Take ownership of the file:

 - Click Start Orb > type fonts in the search box > click Fonts

 - Right-click the font > click Properties - Click Security tab > click Advanced - Click Owner > click Edit - Select your Username > click OK

Click OK on the Windows Security box

Change Permissions of the file:

 - Click Permissions > click Change Permissions

 - Select your Username > click Edit

 - Checkmark Allow for Full control

 - Click OK - Click OK

Click Yes on the Windows Security box

 - Click OK

You will need to remember the names of your font(s) that you want to delete.

Delete the file:

Will need to start Safe mode with command prompt

Restart your computer and tap F-8 continually, this will bring you to your Advanced Boot Options, select Safe mode with command prompt.

Once you have booted:

In command prompt navigate to fonts:

 - type cd c:\windows\fonts > press enter

 - type del "font name" > press enter *Do not use the quotes around the font name

This should bring you back to a clean prompt.

Once you are finished > Ctrl+Alt+Del > select restart from the arrow in the bottom right corner of your screen and start Windows normally.

Hope this helps

As the Windows Security box states; this could cause Windows to act differently. Make sure you know which fonts you are removing and that Windows does not need them before you remove any protected system fonts. This could cause many complications with your installation of Windows.

Chris.H

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-03-20T21:56:18+00:00

    About half of the font files can be moved without any problems, but the other half of the font files is protected by Windows and you have to take ownership first and change the permissions for the administrator group to full rights before you can move them. Fortunately this can be done without clicking through dozens of properties dialog boxes, it can be done by the batch file, too.

    This is great news! But why didn't you explain how? How do I do this?

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-11T20:20:05+00:00

    Hi askf,

    it's not that big a deal, actually. At least not if you have ever used the command window. What the batch file generally does is to move font-file by font-file to that folder 2manyfonts. The command for that reads as follows:

       move %windrive%:\Windows\Fonts\aparaj.ttf %windrive%:\2manyfonts\aparaj.ttf

    The %windrive% is a variable, which holds the drive letter, in my example "C". So once you start the batch file with the command "_2mf.bat C " the command executed by the batch files reads:

       move C:\Windows\Fonts\aparaj.ttf C:\2manyfonts\aparaj.ttf

    The command should be clear, then comes the source-folder\file and then the target-folder\file. "aparaj.ttf " is the font-file to be moved, but this is not what the Explorer  or the Font-Administration shows you when you open the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, it shows you Aparajita .

    You can test this when you open a command window. No need for "Run as administrator" this time, just typecmdin the search box and press Enter, then type dir c:\windows\fonts /p and press Enter again. This will just list you the content of your fonts folder, page by page. Press either any key for the next page or CTRL+C if you have seen enough.

    As the font list to be moved is quite long, I don't want to list it here, but I have added a list in myblog article .

    For the fonts you or someone else would like to keep there are two ways, either remove those files from the batch file, or install them again after they have been moved. You can reinstall them when you open the C:\2manyfonts folder in your Explorer and mark all files you want to reinstall and right-click them and choose "install".

    I don't have any fonts starting with @, so I am not sure which one you are mentioning.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-11T16:12:59+00:00

    I'm also completely frustrated and aggravated by this problem. I won't repeat what everyone else has said, although I would dearly love to vent. Not being as technically knowledgeable as some other posters here, I'm not going to try Martin Ihde's fix until someone else does.

    I have one question about it: where are the deleted (moved) fonts listed? Are they in the batch file? What if you want to keep the non-Roman fonts for a specific language but get rid of the rest? I can use Hebrew; at least one other poster has mentioned that s/he could use Chinese.

    Also, I came up with an idea that is not too elegant but would at least cut down on the frustration of the long font list. I thought of renaming the unwanted font files by prefixing each of them with "zz": e.g., Aparajita would become zzAparajita. This would at least move them all down to the bottom of the list. Unfortunately, when I tried this I found that the Rename option for these files is grayed out. Perhaps someone here can figure out how to do this?

    And what's with all the fonts that start with @? Most of them appear to be non-Roman fonts that I have set to "hide," but other "hidden" fonts appear in the alphabetical listing.

    I'm running Home Premium, US edition.

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