HELP Winaero Tweaker has damaged my Win11 system

I used Winaero Tweaker 1.40 to change the fonts for Icons, Menus, etc. That worked fine. Then I change the System Font, and the WORLD ENDED. When I hit the "search" on the Taskbar, a blank window opens and flashes. I used regedit to look at the entry for the system font. The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft|Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts has the first entry called "Default".
(Default) REG-SZ (value not set).

PLEASE help me fix this. I know nothing about the Registry, or Windows 11. I used this program on the advice of this forum.

How much dodging are you going to do?
WinAero did not damage your set-up; you did.
The forum did not make the changes ; you did.
Use your backup, which I am sure, you have since you follow the advices on this forum.
If not there you should always have a restore point.

The restore did not work.

do use software you do understand or manage to use mate... simple as that.

@bmagnet


Winaero Tweaker has sort of an undo tool. Just reset all tweaks and reboot.





Also, under File > Import/Export ...you can Import or Export your tweaks.
And then, if you think about it... things get REALLY cool...

You can Export your Tweaks, and UNCHECK any you don't want Exported, like where you changed the System Font.
THEN do the Actions > Reset all tweaks, which will UNDO all your tweaks.
THEN Import your tweaks where you unchecked the one you didn't want.

Please help me. I am 70 years old, and don't know anything about the registry. I DO know that the default font should not be (value not set).

When I clicked on Rest all tweaks, there was nothing in the list. The tweaks related to Advanced Appearance Settings are not found in that list.

"I DO know that the default font should not be (value not set)."
And you are wrong to ASSUME that as each subkey has that as a blank default value
Follow Ghot 's advice and stay away from things you do not grasp.
The registry is no place you should be.

bmagnet said:

When I clicked on Rest all tweaks, there was nothing in the list. The tweaks related to Advanced Appearance Settings are not found in that list.

Click to expand...

That, I can't help with... I didn't DO the Change System Fonts Tweak.


But... at the top right of the Advanced Appearance Settings > System Font page.... there will be a link, which tells you how it was done... manually. This will show you the registry key(s) that were changed.

Here's the web page for System Fonts...

I'm still working on a reg patch. LOL

You can use mine if you want. I haven't added any new ones.
It will not re-size them though. Those I believe are in metrics.
Right click on file and select Merge, confirm yes, yes.
Restart your PC.

OAT said:

So you are not getting this list at all BMagnet?

View attachment 49143

Click to expand...

"Some" of the settings in the top two sections (on the left side), were only added for Windows 11.
So I'm not sure if they would show up on the list.

@Ghot
Did not see your reply there, it's removed now to avoid dupes.

OAT said:

@Ghot
Did not see your reply there, it's removed now to avoid dupes.

Click to expand...

Ok... here is a pic of the default Win 11 font. Now I'm gonna use Winaero to change it to... "Impact".




Ok... here we are, changed to Impact...




Now to check the Winaero options at this point...

bmagnet said:

on the advice of this forum

Click to expand...

One tweak would seem to conflict with the other. When you change system font, that changes font system wide, including the icon font and menu font. Both should not have been changed. Did you use different fonts when you did the tweaks or did you choose the same font. To make matters worse, whichever theme you use affects font settings for certain aspects of the window including the menu. The OS's brain would be scrambled by opposing settings. Something tells me you probably made other Winaero tweaks as well.

System font settings are in HKLM.
Icon and menu fonts are on a user basis HKCU.
If you cannot undo all aerotweaker changes per @Ghot's suggestion in post #5, importing @OAT file should fix the system side of it. You should then be able to create a new local user account which would have all user settings at default. (Settings>System>Accounts>Other Users.) Be sure and make it an administrator account.
Backup all your personal files from your old account by COPYING and PASTING the files to external media. Log out of your current user account and login to new user account. Windows will build a new desktop. COPY and PASTE the files you saved into the new user account. Restart, log back in to new account and then delete your old account.

If you want to use a MS account rather than a local account, go into settings>system>accounts and change your local account to a MS account.

Winaerotweaker has never failed me.

Post #14 and this post...


@bmagnet
@OAT
@Brink


Ok... the Export or Reset tweaks ...things do NOT show the System Fonts tweak, on their lists.
The reg patch and the Control Panel > Fonts thing don't work (exactly) either... they're close but no cigar.


What DOES work is Winaero Tweaker > System Fonts tweak.
You just go back to the same tweak and choose; "Use system default".
THAT will reset the System Font tweak to the System default...




This is also why it doesn't show up on the Export or Reset lists, because the UNDO is already in the actual System Font tweak (RED box).



Here is a pic showing that choosing; Use system default (in Winaero) actually does revert back to System default...
See post #14 for comparison.







/edit
I'm pretty sure the system default font is... Segoe UI. I just can't figure out which of the 10-12 Segoe UIs it is.


/edit2
So, for anyone using the Winaero > System Font tweak... if they don't like the results, they can just open the same tweak and choose: "Use system default" to return to... the system default.

Who'd a thunk. LOL

Thanks for all that, so I gather using WinAero to reset the fonts is the Bmagnet's best chance?

OAT said:

Thanks for all that, so I gather using WinAero to reset the fonts is the Bmagnet's best chance?

Click to expand...

It seems to be the case, that using the Winaero tweak to undo the Winaero tweak... works the best.
And because the tweak has it's own UNDO so to speak... it doesn't show in the Export or Reset tweaks, lists.

bmagnet said:

, and the WORLD ENDED.

Click to expand...

Just need to jumpstart the world then.

Ghot said:

It seems to be the case, that using the Winaero tweak to undo the Winaero tweak... works the best.

Click to expand...

Last time when I tried that, it had no impact on the world.