Solved FONTS question...

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:02:41-0400

In the Taskbar search box, when I type Fonts, it brings up a settings page with all my Fonts listed.
Microsoft, in it's infinite wisdom, has installed a whole pile of fonts that are either so similar, or of an entirely different language.

I do a lot of image editing, and use Fonts a lot when doing so.
On the Fonts settings page I can "hide" the fonts I will never use.
Unfortunately, they are still show up in my image editor or in Wordpad.

So to find the fonts I do want to use, involves scrolling through a bazillion fonts that I won't ever use.

Now I know that I can "uninstall" fonts, on the Fonts settings page.
I assume that if I do that they won't show up in my image editors or in Wordpad, which would be great.

However... I don't want to break any Window's functions by uninstalling a lot of (useless to me), fonts.

I know the default Windows 11 system Font is Segoe UI Variable so I won't uninstall that one.

There are quite a few Chinese fonts, that I don't need. BUT... there are some registry entries that use Chinese Fonts.
This is just one of the issues I may run into when "uninstalling" fonts.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

gunrunnerjohn · 2026-10-04T11:06:56-0400

When I was still using Windows 10, I had a similar complaint. I uninstalled a ton of them, and I never noticed any issues. That's not to say there might not have been any issues hiding in the corner, but I was not affected by the missing fonts. Windows will block you from uninstalling required fonts, so I don't think there's a lot of danger.

Just a sample of one...

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:11:33-0400

Ok. I'm gonna try this. I have a fresh backup about 2 days old.
After I uninstall the Fonts I don't want, I'll make another backup.

So let the Fonts fall, where they may.

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:13:39-0400

Well so much for that test. 90% of the ones I want to remove, claim to be protected system fonts.

For example... all the ones with RED dots are protected system fonts.

Here I'm guessing they are protected because the appear in Character map or are needed for "2nd language" or maybe Accessibility.
I wonder if I could remove them in Safe Mode?

Brb, I'm gonna try to remove one or two of them.

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:29:59-0400

I can't even go into C:\Windows\Fonts and "Take Ownership" of the Fonts folder, or of a Font IN the folder.

OAT · 2026-10-04T11:30:19-0400

Friend,
You might want to read over this.
The reg file removes the entries for the fonts (so that they don't show)
It therefore does not delete them.
I suggest a reboot as it is at the machine level.

Tried it , it works and you can even add entries to the reg file with "fontname (True Type)"=-

How to uninstall/delete unnecessary fonts?

I was just doing a bit more customizing on my husband's new Win11 Pro PC and stumbled upon a list of 122 fonts in 'Settings'. Some of them are for foreign language characters we'll never use. I clicked on the 3 dots (...) for a few of them and saw an option to uninstall. I tried to do that. A...

www.elevenforum.com

dacrone · 2026-10-04T11:38:09-0400

Try this method (last reply)

7000 plus in fonts - how to delete & manage - Windows 10 Help Forums

Over the years my fonts accumulated and now cause system lag with 7000 plus files in the windows fonts folder, how do i just keep the essential ones [about 200] and delete the rest? regards gabriel win10 pro, v 19045.5796

www.tenforums.com

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:38:56-0400

HA !
I went in the registry and deleted one.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

Now I'm gonna reboot and see if my computer explodes.

garlin · 2026-10-04T11:39:24-0400

Ghot said:
There are quite a few Chinese fonts, that I don't need. BUT... there are some registry entries that use Chinese Fonts.
This is just one of the issues I may run into when "uninstalling" fonts.

Normally an English-based user doesn't need the Asian fonts.

What you're talking about it is a long known bug, where certain byte sequences in a reg value fool Windows into thinking the entire text should be rendered in a different encoding. If you look at the raw bytes, the string is still in English. But the start of the string tricks Windows to shifting the display into Unicode, where all the Asian characters live.

This bug has existed for decades, and MS won't fix it because they know changing it would break other legacy behavior.

When you don't have the correct font to render a text, Windows uses a set of rules to find the "next equivalent" font. Sometimes the next font isn't even close, but that's how it works.

OAT said:
Friend,
You might want to read over this.
The reg file removes the entries for the fonts (so that they don't show)

This is the correct approach. If you takeown the font files and force delete them from the filesystem, "SFC /scannow" will restore them.

Ghot · 2026-10-04T11:42:44-0400

garlin said:
This is the correct approach. If you takeown the font files and force delete them from the filesystem, "SFC /scannow" will restore them.

I was just about to test that.

I kind of figured either SFC or a Windows Update would restore them.
See the pic in post #5.

Well.... SFC didn't put the one I removed back. It didn't even find any "Integrity Violations".

The good part is, ALL the Fonts are located in one registry entry, and they were deletable with no rigamarole.
So I can open that registry key and open Fonts settings, and just delete the ones I don't want, in the registry.

My full backup is only two days old.

Watch... I'll just happen to delete the font that the Macrium Reflect bootable media uses, and I won't be able to read it. LOL

Ghot · 2026-10-04T12:03:12-0400

OK, I'm down to 71 fonts now.
Time to reboot again.

Nothing exploded. Character map still works, although I think it's showing some of the fonts I deleted.

Running SFC again... still showing 71 fonts

Gonna make a fresh backup...

KevTech · 2026-10-04T12:13:51-0400

I think you also have to look at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

That key tells Windows to replace one font with another whenever an application requests the original font name.

OAT · 2026-10-04T12:15:23-0400

Ghot said:
OK, I'm down to 71 fonts now.
Time to reboot again.

Nothing exploded. Character map still works, although I think it's showing some of the fonts I deleted.

Running SFC again... still showing 71 fonts

View attachment 185310

@Ghot ,

Please read post #6, you do not have to delete the reg entries, just comment them out.

Ghot · 2026-10-04T12:20:49-0400

OAT said:
@Ghot ,

Please read post #6, you do not have to delete the reg entries, just comment them out.

I understand. I want them deleted.

I'm gonna let this ride fro a while and see what happens.

Now I need to find a Chinese website.

Can someone find me a website with Chinese text. I want to see if I can "see" the text.
I tried Googling for a Chinese site... but I'm wondering if I could "see" the search results. (Firefox)

I found one and I can see the Chinese, so I guess Firefox is taking care of that.

I do remember that there were some registry entries with Chinese characters, but I don't remember where they are in the registry.

Edwin · 2026-10-04T12:40:32-0400

Ghot said:
I don't remember where they are in the registry.

Many of them are at the bottom of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Ghot · 2026-10-04T12:41:54-0400

KevTech said:
I think you also have to look at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

That key tells Windows to replace one font with another whenever an application requests the original font name.

None of the fonts in there have anything to do with the ones I removed.

Ghot · 2026-10-04T12:48:31-0400

Edwin said:
Many of them are at the bottom of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

I still see them. But I'm not sure those are Chinese ideograms... but how could I possibly tell?

I copied one of those lines and pasted in Google search, and it changed them all to unicode. ^^

�翭䜀蠀ᠸ星翿 <---- just like they changed to unicode when I pasted them in here too.

So I guess Windows has a workaround for people like me that delete their fonts.

I do know one thing though.... the list of fonts in Paint Shop Pro is a LOT shorter than it used to be. ^^

There's a bunch of Win 11 fonts that all look like slight variations on Arial.
I'd love to remove most of them, but that MAY cause problems.

And, as I mentioned above, I can't remove Segoe UI Variable cause that's the default Win 11 System Font.

======================================================================

So, I'll just run Windows like this for a day or two and see if anything breaks.

Edwin · 2026-10-04T13:01:06-0400

If I Hide a font in Control Panel it doesn't show in any list, WordPad or other!

Ghot · 2026-10-04T13:08:02-0400

Edwin said:
If I Hide a font in Control Panel it doesn't show in any list

I tried that, and it still shows in Paint Shop Pro.

The ones with RED dots are "hidden", BUT... you're right, they don't show in Wordpad. ^^

I even rebooted a few times, and ran CCleaner a few times, but they still show in PSP 7.04
Which is... the main place I wanted them NOT to show. LOL

I think PSP has some kind of backroom deal with Windows 11.

I do a lot of image handling. At the moment I have 7,225 images on this comp. And I'm really picky about what I keep.

Ok, I've marked this as Solved.
Now it's time to run some errands.

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