This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I am attempting to delete some non-system fonts that I installed. Every time I try, no matter what the font, I am told that the font cannot be deleted because it is "in use". It does not matter if I close every single program running and double-check that no word processors (I use Open Office) are running through Task Manager, the system will not allow me to delete any fonts.
Please help.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Could it be this simple? It worked for me!
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/1189255.htm
The Windows Font folder itself is using the font, hence why you can't delete the font - i.e. the very tool you're using to delete the font is using said font and thus locking the file!
When in the Fonts folder click:
Organize > Layout > Untick 'Details pane' > Now try deleting the font.
Worked a treat for me.
Seriously needs addressing in the next service pack.
All,
I MIGHT JUST HAVE THE FIX FOR THIS!!
I've been struggling for 1 hour to delete a font and I've finally done it.
I renamed the font and I could delete it immediately!
Before deleting it I set all the permissions to allow. I don't know if that helped but ultimately it worked.
I was in safe mode and that didn't work until the renaming trick.
Good luck.
G
LMAO!!!!! You did not mention the post here about RENAMING THE FONT FILE BEFORE TRYING TO DELETE IT, which just worked for me, and it IS one of the solutions posted here, so, by your own admission:
" I TIRED EVERYTHING IN THIS THREAD OF LIES THAT DON'T WORK!!! ", YOU seem to be the one lying, because you did NOT try everything in this thread. I thoroughly enjoyed your public display of tantramatic responsiveness though, thank you for that. :)
Yup, this did it for me as well. my guess is that there is some sort of caching going on with fonts and as soon as you rename them the system compares what you are trying to delete with fonts in that cached collection somewhere and when the names no longer match, it allows you to delete it, but I could be wrong. I am sure that there is good reason to have this protection in place, perhaps so that any currently open editors which already have it in their font dropdown (MS Word) do not get out of sync with the system, but giving us a more intuitive, in process method to delete fonts would be great. I reason messagebox at the least, so that we know what the heck to do about it?
THAT'S IS FALSE INFORMATION!!!!!!!!! TURNING OFF PREVIEW PANE DOES NOT WORK!!!!!! CLOSING PROGRAMS DOES NOT WORK EITHER AND NEITHER DOES SAFE MOVE OR CLEAN BOOT!!! SELECTING MULTIPLE FILES IS ALSO A **** LIE!!!!!!!!!!! STILL WILL NOT DELETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CLOSED ALL PROCESSES I CAN WITHOUT ERROR!!! STILL NOT DELETING!!! I TIRED EVERYTHING IN THIS THREAD OF LIES THAT DON'T WORK!!! A BUNCH OF **** LIARS IN THIS THREAD!!!
