Windows – Changing ALL System Fonts in Windows 7

desktop-customizationfontswindowswindows 7windows-registry

I had a quick question about altering fonts in Windows 7 I was hoping someone could give me a hand with. I have a touch of OCD when it comes to consistency and am having trouble changing the system fonts globally on my machine. I have changed 80% or so of them through the registry entry (found here):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  ; Created by: Shawn Brink
  ; http://www.sevenforums.com
  ; Tutorial: Fonts - Change

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
  "Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
  "Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
  "Segoe UI"="CUSTOM_FONT_NAME"

The only issue I’m having is that the font is not adjusted in a few other places. For example, if I right-click on a file and look at the properties window, the font is still the default system font. The following is an example:

I’ve changed both the registry entry and the window fonts under “Personalization” to what I want but can’t seem to figure out how to change this font. I’d be eternally (or close to it) grateful to anyone who knows how to alter this font.

Edit: Shortly after posting this I found the exact registry edit I was looking for:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Created by: Shawn Brink
; http://www.sevenforums.com
; Tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1175-fonts-change.html


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"MS Shell Dlg 2"="Tahoma"
"MS Shell Dlg"="Tahoma"

Best Answer

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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Created by: Shawn Brink
; http://www.sevenforums.com
; Tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1175-fonts-change.html


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"MS Shell Dlg 2"="Tahoma"
"MS Shell Dlg"="Tahoma"

Steps I took when last installing Ubuntu afresh

Put your TrueType fonts (.ttf files from Windows installation or e.g. the Microsoft Core Fonts package legally available on the web) in some directory, e.g. /usr/local/winfonts.

Edit /etc/fonts/local.config and add your winfont dir:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>
        <!-- Font directory list -->
        <dir>/usr/local/winfonts</dir> 
        <dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc</dir>
</fontconfig>

Run sudo fc-cache -fv to rebuild font information cache files. (Nowadays there's no need to create files like fonts.scale, fonts.dir or fonts.alias using ttmkfdir or other utilities!)

Then configure Tahoma 8 as the default font in your desktop environment (KDE's control centre for me; equally easy in the Gnome equivalent)

And that's it.

Alternative way

Another way is to simply install msttcorefonts package from Universe and run fc-cache, as instructed in this post on Ubuntu Blog.

The core fonts package doesn't include Tahoma though. But if you have it from other sources, copying the .ttf files to ~/.fonts/ (or /usr/local/share/fonts for system wide availability) before running fc-cache should be sufficient.

Windows 8.1 Command Prompt can’t show fonts listed in registry editor

Fonts have to be specifically added to a different part of the registry to be seen by the console.dll (which shows the properties).

Think of it as a UI feature from Windows 2.x they have not got around to 'fixing' yet.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Best Fonts for Ubuntu

Steps I took when last installing Ubuntu afresh

Alternative way

Windows 8.1 Command Prompt can’t show fonts listed in registry editor

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