How to get rid of unwanted system fonts?

W

Wolf K

I have a bunch of fonts on this ystem that I will never use, but when I
try to delet them, a pop-up tells me no dice, they are protected system
fonts.

I've looked at properties, no box to uncheck, etc.

Is there some way to eliminate these? They just clutter up the font
list, even when I've tried hiding them.

TIA,
Wolf K.
 
J

Joe Morris

Wolf K said:
I have a bunch of fonts on this ystem that I will never use, but when I try
to delet them, a pop-up tells me no dice, they are protected system fonts.
I've looked at properties, no box to uncheck, etc.
Is there some way to eliminate these? They just clutter up the font list,
even when I've tried hiding them.
It's rather difficult to analyze the problem if you don't tell us exactly
what font files you're trying to get rid of. Even better, you might want to
tell us what list you're referring to; some lists enumerate every individual
font files while others display only the face names, leaving the selection
of degrees of boldness, italicization, and the like (which represent
individual font files) to subordinate lists.

It's possible that the fonts you're trying to remove are used by parts of
the system, in which case the removal code is legitimately protecting the
system from your attempt to modify it.

I'm not disagreeing with your desire to clean up the font presentation in
Windows; I have a rather large number of fonts for specialized applications
(including a few of my own design) and I have to balance the utility of
having them pre-installed when I need them, vs. making the font lists as
long as a Senate filibuster. One tool that I miss in Windows 7 is Adobe
Type Manager, which allowed a user to define font groups and with a single
checkbox add or remove all of the font files in the group. (Then there were
tools like FontMinder and FontMonger, which to its disgrace Adobe killed off
when it bought Ares.)

Joe
 
S

Stan Brown

I have a bunch of fonts on this ystem that I will never use, but when I
try to delet them, a pop-up tells me no dice, they are protected system
fonts.

I've looked at properties, no box to uncheck, etc.

Is there some way to eliminate these? They just clutter up the font
list, even when I've tried hiding them.
Short answer: no.

I brought this up a while back. It's a problem going back to Windows
XP, at least. Stupid useless fonts like Che Dotum and Batang are in
Windows just in case you might want to use Asian characters, and they
can't be removed.

I suppose if I were Asian, I'd say stupid useless fonts like Times
Roman. Either way, it's ridiculous that we can't uninstall fonts we
don't want. But such is Windows.
 
W

Wolf K

Wolf K said:
I have a bunch of fonts on this system that I will never use, but when I try
to delete them, a pop-up tells me no dice, they are protected system fonts.
[...]
It's rather difficult to analyze the problem if you don't tell us exactly
what font files you're trying to get rid of.[...[]
I already did, reread my first sentence, in which I refer to _protected
system fonts_. They can't be deleted from the fonts folder. They are
included on the install disk so that you can localise the system for
your preferred language during installation. You should be able to
delete the ones you don't need or want, but I guess MS doesn't want you
to do that.

I know the solution is a registry hack, but I would like some advice
from someone who's already done it.

TIA,
Wolf K.
 
W

Wolf K

Short answer: no.
Actually, there is: it's a registry hack. I found it bu googling, but
would like some advice from anyone who's already done it.

[snip rant]

Wolf K.
 
S

Stan Brown

Actually, there is: it's a registry hack. I found it bu googling,
but would like some advice from anyone who's already done it.
Care to share the URL with the class? That might make it more likely
someone who has done it would recognize it.

You can always set a restore point, apply the registry hack, test out
your system, and then restore to that restore point if something is
amiss. That's what System Restore is for.
 
S

SC Tom

Wolf K said:
Short answer: no.
Actually, there is: it's a registry hack. I found it bu googling, but would like some advice from anyone who's already
done it.

[snip rant]

Wolf K.
If you already know what the hack is, back up the registry and give it a try. In the time it took to create this post,
wait for replies, then type out more replies, you could have already found out if it was a viable hack or not, and if it
wasn't, restored your registry to correct any errors.

The question I have is, Why? On my Win7 system, the font folder takes up approximately 1/10 of 1 per cent of my total
hard drive, and a 298GB drive is relatively small by today's standards. I know everybody feels it's there "right" to
have total control over everything they own, but there are plenty of other things in life to worry about than a tiny bit
of hard drive space. If you don't want to use them, then don't. They're not slowing down your system, and they don't
take up much room. What's the problem? :)

(let the flaming begin :) OO-RAH!!)
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

Wolf said:
Short answer: no.
Actually, there is: it's a registry hack. I found it bu googling, but
would like some advice from anyone who's already done it.

[snip rant]
A URL for the hack would be nice.
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

SC said:
Wolf K said:
On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:36:43 -0500, Wolf K wrote:

I have a bunch of fonts on this system that I will never use,
but when I try to delete them, a pop-up tells me no dice, they
are protected system fonts.

I've looked at properties, no box to uncheck, etc.

Is there some way to eliminate these? They just clutter up the
font list, even when I've tried hiding them.

Short answer: no.
Actually, there is: it's a registry hack. I found it bu googling,
but would like some advice from anyone who's already done it.

[snip rant]

Wolf K.
If you already know what the hack is, back up the registry and give
it a try. In the time it took to create this post, wait for replies,
then type out more replies, you could have already found out if it
was a viable hack or not, and if it wasn't, restored your registry to
correct any errors.

The question I have is, Why? On my Win7 system, the font folder takes
up approximately 1/10 of 1 per cent of my total hard drive, and a
298GB drive is relatively small by today's standards. I know
everybody feels it's there "right" to have total control over
everything they own, but there are plenty of other things in life to
worry about than a tiny bit of hard drive space. If you don't want to
use them, then don't. They're not slowing down your system, and they
don't take up much room. What's the problem? :)

(let the flaming begin :) OO-RAH!!)
I use font viewing programs to select fonts for applications, and they
show ALL the fonts of a given style. I would rather they not show fonts
I'll never use, like Batang. Fonts can nominally be hidden, but they
don't hide very well!
 
W

Wolf K

If you already know what the hack is, back up the registry and give it a
try. In the time it took to create this post, wait for replies, then
type out more replies, you could have already found out if it was a
viable hack or not, and if it wasn't, restored your registry to correct
any errors.
True, true. ;-)
The question I have is, Why?
Because I prefer WordPerfect, and the "hidden" fonts show up in the font
selection list.

Wolf K.
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

Wolf said:
I played with that a little, AFTER backing up the registry font keys and
creating a restore point. I created a separate registry font backup in
addition to a restore point so I could restore the fonts sometime in the
future, after the system has gone through other evolutions.

Many of the undesirable hidden fonts cannot be deleted from the Control
Panel. They are protected system fonts, for some reason, probably so
Windows can display foreign languages. I found no such restrictions when
deleting them in the registry, but I put everything back for now. I'm
chicken. Overriding system settings I don't understand has a nasty
habit of coming back to bite me in the ass.
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

The question I have is, Why? On my Win7 system, the font folder takes up approximately 1/10 of 1 per cent of my total
hard drive, and a 298GB drive is relatively small by today's standards. I know everybody feels it's there "right" to
have total control over everything they own, but there are plenty of other things in life to worry about than a tiny bit
of hard drive space. If you don't want to use them, then don't. They're not slowing down your system, and they don't
take up much room. What's the problem? :)
My reaction was that Wolf K doesn't like to scroll through a lot of
fonts he doesn't care about, and his reply to your post seems to imply
that it was a good guess on my part.

And I hope you're not disappointed that no one seems to be flaming you
:)
 
W

Wolf K

My reaction was that Wolf K doesn't like to scroll through a lot of
fonts he doesn't care about, and his reply to your post seems to imply
that it was a good guess on my part.
Right. I've found I don't really need that much of a font choice, about
2 dozen is ample most of the time, so I want to move most of them into a
backup folder from which I could install a font if for some reason I
decide I need it after all. And of course delete fonts I won't use,
since I don't know Korean or Malay, etc. On all previous systems I've
been able to do this.

OTOH, I do collect fonts, I have about 1,000 on a CD, so go figure.... ;-)
And I hope you're not disappointed that no one seems to be flaming you
:)
I think futile flaming is a predominantly Lindroid pastime.

;-)

Wolf K.
 
S

SC Tom

Gene E. Bloch said:
My reaction was that Wolf K doesn't like to scroll through a lot of
fonts he doesn't care about, and his reply to your post seems to imply
that it was a good guess on my part.

And I hope you're not disappointed that no one seems to be flaming you
:)
Never disappointed with the lack of a flame war :) I'm getting too old for that crap, IYKWIM.

To Wolf:
It's been decades since I used WordPerfect (although I did like it), but isn't there an option to store its program
fonts in a separate folder than Window's font folder? Or am I thinking of another non-Microsoft Word (something
something) program?
I agree with you and Crash, though. If I did a lot of word processing, and required different fonts on a regular basis,
I'd probably not like having to scroll through them all, either. Does W-P keep a list of the last used like Word does
(or is that older versions of Office that did that)?
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

Never disappointed with the lack of a flame war :) I'm getting too old for that crap, IYKWIM.

To Wolf:
It's been decades since I used WordPerfect (although I did like it), but isn't there an option to store its program
fonts in a separate folder than Window's font folder? Or am I thinking of another non-Microsoft Word (something
something) program?
I agree with you and Crash, though. If I did a lot of word processing, and required different fonts on a regular basis,
I'd probably not like having to scroll through them all, either. Does W-P keep a list of the last used like Word does
(or is that older versions of Office that did that)?
For reasons unknown to me your post gave me another idea that Wolf K
might like.

Is it possible to set up a small list of fonts and work from that? Sort
of like a (shudder) Library of shortcuts...

If not from Microsoft, maybe there's a third party solution. (I almost
typed Micro$oft just to be ornery, but decided it's in bad taste, even
for a joke!).

I have no idea if it can be done, I'm just brainstorming.
 
W

Wolf K

On 15/11/2011 6:12 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
[...]
For reasons unknown to me your post gave me another idea that Wolf K
might like.

Is it possible to set up a small list of fonts and work from that? Sort
of like a (shudder) Library of shortcuts...
Yes. Basically, you delete unwanted fonts, or move them to some folder
created for the purpose, or burn them to a CD/DVD. The fonts that remain
in Windows' fonts folder will be the ones that applications see and can
utilise. This is what I want to do, problem is, you can neither delete
nor move "protected system fonts". And although Windows can hide fonts,
some programs can see them anyway.

[...]

HTH
Wolf K.
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

Wolf said:
On 15/11/2011 6:12 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
[...]
For reasons unknown to me your post gave me another idea that Wolf K
might like.

Is it possible to set up a small list of fonts and work from that? Sort
of like a (shudder) Library of shortcuts...
Yes. Basically, you delete unwanted fonts, or move them to some folder
created for the purpose, or burn them to a CD/DVD. The fonts that remain
in Windows' fonts folder will be the ones that applications see and can
utilise. This is what I want to do, problem is, you can neither delete
nor move "protected system fonts". And although Windows can hide fonts,
some programs can see them anyway.
The only way you can get rid of "protected system fonts" is to delete
them in the registry.
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

On 15/11/2011 6:12 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
[...]
For reasons unknown to me your post gave me another idea that Wolf K
might like.

Is it possible to set up a small list of fonts and work from that? Sort
of like a (shudder) Library of shortcuts...
Yes. Basically, you delete unwanted fonts, or move them to some folder
created for the purpose, or burn them to a CD/DVD. The fonts that remain
in Windows' fonts folder will be the ones that applications see and can
utilise. This is what I want to do, problem is, you can neither delete
nor move "protected system fonts". And although Windows can hide fonts,
some programs can see them anyway.

[...]

HTH
Wolf K.
Actually, I meant what I said more literally than that: I meant work
from a separate list that gives access only to the fonts in that list,
without deleting any fonts from the computer or from Windows's normal
purview. That's why I analogized it to the Library.

If such a thing existed, it might be a third-party program written by
somebody who shares your frustration...
 
W

Wolf K

Actually, I meant what I said more literally than that: I meant work
from a separate list that gives access only to the fonts in that list,
without deleting any fonts from the computer or from Windows's normal
purview. That's why I analogized it to the Library.

If such a thing existed, it might be a third-party program written by
somebody who shares your frustration...
It would be very handy, if you could customise the list for each
application.....

Better yet, it would be handy to be able to specify a font list within
the application. AFAIK, this can't be done. Back in DOS/early Windows
days, some applications had their own, internal font files. This started
to disappear when dot-matrix printers became obsolete.

I have several font collections on CD, probably a couple of thousand
files overall, including (no doubt many duplicates. But I've found (as
most of us eventually do) that hoarding such data is pointless. ;-)

Have good day,
Wolf K.
 

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