"Installed" fonts not showing up in Windows Fonts folder

Anonymous
2018-07-23T12:31:42+00:00

Hi guys,

Unfortunately, none of the previous answers solves my problem.

I try to install fonts. According to Windows that also works but I cannot see the installed fonts in the Windows Fonts folder and neither do they show up in Illustrator. 

When I copy a font file into the Windows Fonts folder it says "The "xxxxxx" font is already installed. Do you want to replace it?" - I click yes, but still - the font does not show.

It's not a problem of the font file as it was working previously. Same happens to hundreds of other fonts. Says they are installed but they don't show and they are not selectable in other applications.

Thanks for your help!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-01-12T19:59:24+00:00

    This works, but at least for me the dos prompt was backwards.  You want to be in the Windows font folder and copy to the new folders.  So cd\windows\fonts copy *.* c:\fonts worked for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-01-10T23:36:12+00:00

    One more note. For me (on laptop running windows 10 pro) the apparent reason the font was 'in use by system' and couldn't be uninstalled was due to Skype. I can't remember how I discovered the service had a handle to the ttf file... but I tried uninstalling Skype (I happen not to use it on laptop), and I can always properly uninstall fonts now. I did not have the same issue on my Desktop computer (also Win 10 Pro), so your mileage may vary.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-01-10T14:32:57+00:00

    While you were typing your reply, I was editing mine. See if my solution works for you!

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-01-10T14:20:34+00:00

    I feel the same way. And I‘m sure we are just the tip of the iceberg. There must be thousands of people having this issue, maybe found our thread and sadly needed to realize that so far no solution has been working.

    Is there a way to get this issue directly to MS?

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-01-10T14:07:16+00:00

    It's really kind of sickening that so many of us have had this problem, and yet MS support doesn't seem to care.

    I've tried every suggestion in this thread, and still cannot install a font, even though windows always thinks it has installed the font. It shows up in the fonts folder, it shows registered as a font, but none of them ever show up in any programs.

    EDIT: I FOUND A WAY THAT WORKS FOR ME!!!!

    Short Answer: You need to copy your font file to c:\windows\fonts while using admin privledges. I did this while using an elevated command prompt, and a "Copy fontfile.ttf c:\windows\font"

    Long Answer: Okay, this is annoying, but I think I figured it out. This is a little advanced but works 100% of the time

    1. Open your c:\ in windows explorer, make a new folder on the root called fonts. Copy your fonts in there.
    2. Open an elevated command prompt. Open the start menu, type CMD but DON'T CLICK ENTER.  Move your mouse up to where it says Command Prompt and right click. Run as administrator. Accept the popups, eventually you get a black text window.

    IF YOU DO NOT OPEN THE COMMAND PROMPT WITH ADMIN ACCESS, THIS MOST LIKELY WILL NOT WORK, BUT WILL SAY IT DID.

    1. Type the following commands. You can copy/paste them but you need to use CTRL-V in the text window to paste each line SEPARATELY.

    cd\fonts  (Then Press Enter)

    copy *.* c:\windows\fonts  (Then Press Enter)

    (Advanced note: If you know how to navigate DOS, you can do this a number of different ways, just make sure you have an elevated prompt, and use a copy command to get the font files into c:\windows\fonts directly )

    That's it. You're done. Open word, or illustrator, or something, and see if the font file showed up.

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