Safe-to-Remove (uninstall) Fonts in W10.1903

Hept0p · 29 Sep 2019

I know removing the zillions stock windows fonts is pretty tempting, especially considering they're all loaded entierely on the kernel directly (system resource and security consideration), but i've had unfortunate experience in the past trying to perform such a thing.. (removed font breaking stuff) ..

So I was wondering if there is such a list of Windows fonts that safe to remove, or one that mention for each, the impact of removing each. (or both, ideally)

zbook · 30 Sep 2019

Fonts can be removed.
It's easier on UEFI/GPT with EFI partitions.
What is the purpose of uninstalling them?
They likely will return after a windows upgrade.

RickC · 30 Sep 2019

I haven't seen a list of fonts that can be uninstalled but I use the following AutoHotkey script to create a list of installed fonts, sorted alphabetically:

Code:

FileList =  ; Initialize to be blank.
Loop, C:\Windows\Fonts\*.*,1,1 ; start *up* one directory (to start with the current directory, omit the "..\"), wildcard pattern will capture all files (system/hidden files are excluded from report by parsing loop below), include folders (for files only, omit the 1st "1"), include contents of subfolders (for current directory only, omit the 2nd "1").
    FileList = %FileList%%A_LoopFileFullPath%`n ; alternatively, could get file names only with %A_LoopFileName% special variable or full path and file name and modified date with %A_LoopFileLongPath% and/or %A_LoopFileTimeModified%.
Sort, FileList
Loop, parse, FileList, `n ; Loops through the FileList variable, which is a concatenated string of the applicable *attributes* of each file/ folder from the relevant directory(ies).
    if A_LoopFileAttrib contains H,R,S  ; Skip any file that is either H (Hidden), R (Read-only), or S (System).
continue
FileDelete, DirectoryList.txt
    FileAppend, %FileList%, FontList.txt ;  writes file/folder names/other attributes to the specified text file, FontList.txt in this case, which will be created if it doesn't already exist.
    if ErrorLevel
        MsgBox, Could not write "%FileList%" to FontList.txt. ; I don't know if this naive attempt at "error handling" is helpful.
return

Personally, rather than delete any fonts initially, I would create a folder - say C:\Windows\FontsBak - then move the fonts to this backup folder. You can always delete them from the backup folder when you are absolutely sure there are no adverse effects.

Once you've deleted or moved the fonts from C:\Windows\Fonts then don't forget to delete the font cache file - C:\Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT - and restart your device. The font cache will be automatically recreated - minus the data of the moved/deleted fonts.

See How to Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10 here on TenForums for more details.

Hope this helps...