Notepad Default Font changing on reboot

@Wisewiz
Howdy Dan,
I got your PM; thank you. BTW: where do new msgs go after they've been read?
1. I compared the file size of my laptop and desktop notepad.exe and find them exactly the same.
2. I followed the directions to verify the font in LM ... then deleted notepad in CU ... 3 times ... no luck.
---
Got thinking; this issue started after uninstalling (trial version of) Ashampoo PDF Pro 2. One reason I 'dumped it' was that after running an OCR conversion on a pdf file, the font changed to a sans serif font. Thinking maybe it was Arial ...
Uninstall details: Standard Control Panel procedure; then checked C:\Program Files & C:\Program Files (x86) and found one empty folder "Ashampoo" which was deleted on reboot. I was thinking "Okay, all set."
I just ran a search for "Ashampoo" on C: Drive and got interesting results.
Please review the 2 attached screen shots and let me know what you think.
Note: All the .pdf files and .rtf files were created by me (i.e.: they can't be related to my Arial-Default issue).
Folder "boxshots" only contains an image of their retail box.
Thanks!

Go to My Profile at the very top of the Forums pages; that'll take you to a page where you can scroll down in the left column until you see the word More and an "edit" pen next to it. Click the pen and you'll see upper left Inbox and Sent.

I'd copy all of the rtf and pdf files to a safe place and then delete the whole danged shooting match that's left over from the uninstall. Since the program's gone, you can't hurt anything by cleaning house. Just carefully keep what you want first.

Bonne chance.

Well, it seemed to be a good idea.
For now all I can think of trying is (whenever) I decide to move to 21H1 delete Notepad in CU first.
I'll leave this open for a few days ... in case
Merci


---
Dan, what do you make of this:
2 Entries: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache
There's nothing about fonts I can see; just the company name, but ...?

Yeah, I didn't really think deleting all that detritus would change Notepad's personality. But deleting detritus is always "a good thing."

I DID, however think that our various efforts over the last few days would fix that annoyingly stubborn app. Ah, well, I've been wrong before. I remember well the last time I was wrong. It was a rainy Saturday in 1999, and ... oh, I won't bore you with the details.

"... (whenever) I decide to move to 21H1 delete Notepad in CU first." Sounds like a plan. Give 'er the old college try.

Best regards to you and yours.

Wisewiz said:

You bet. Select a .txt file in File Explorer, right-click, Open With, Choose another app, More apps, Look for another app on this PC, navigate to the executable, click, Always Use.

I keep wondering where that Arial comes from, and it occurred to me that one safe thing you didn't try is replacing C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe on your PC with a copy of the equivalent from your notebook computer. I'm not really hopeful that it'll fix the problem, but it should be easy enough to give it a try.

No, on second thought, there's another safe option you didn't try: Go back to LM Soft Mic Notepad check to see whether Consolas is in DefaultFonts, and if so, proceed to next step; if not, change lfFaceName to Consolas. Then go back to our old stomping ground HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad
Right-click on the Notepad key in the left pane, and then select Delete from the pop-up menu.

Close regedit, reboot, and there's a better than fair chance (I'll betcha) when you open Notepad It'll be in Consolas.

(You can tell I'm still worrying the question about where in the Windows Secret Universe that Arial setting is stored.)

@Wisewiz
Good morning
Re: "(You can tell I'm still worrying the question about where in the Windows Secret Universe that Arial setting is stored.)",
I couldn't get this question out of my head.
So, I decided to search the Registry for "Notepad" ... was a bad idea due to the vast number of instances of "Notepad" in the Registry. That cost me F3 again and again for over 45 minutes!

Then I realized what I really wanted was a search for: "lfFaceName" which gave me 5 hits. And we were addressing only 2 of them. Here they are:
~
*Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Notepad
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Notepad\DefaultFonts
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Notepad\DefaultFonts
Computer\HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Notepad
*Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2597547654-1677941398-577956820-1002\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Notepad
~
Three were set for "Consolas" and the 2 starred keys were set for "Arial" FWIW: I found changing "Arial" to "Consolas" in either of the Starred (*) keys also changed it in the other.
But thre was no change in the default Notepad font upon "Startup" i.e. "cold boot". We never specifically mentioned it's not a problem performing a "Restart".
~
That begs the question what (in this situation) is the difference between Booting from a Full Power-Down and a Restart.
~
I'm putting this out for others to mull over and perhaps provide some new ideas.
Thankfully I'm not dealing with a BSOD or anything at all severe; just needing to change the Notepad font once daily; this is more about the frustration of not being able to solve a seemingly simple issue.

I should also thank those who provided alternatives to Notepad, but for my purposes the simplicity of Notepad is it's primary attraction for me.
Thanks to all,

Hi again, m'fren',

Do you have Hibernate available or killed? (Check your C: drive: if there's a hiberfil.sys way down yonder, you've got hibernate enabled.) If you've got hibernate enabled, there's some stuff to pay attention to: (various sources follow)
If your computer is producing an error, you should use Restart rather than Shut Down, even though it may seem to you that Shut Down would be a more complete option. With Shut Down, Windows 10 shuts down all programs and files you have open, but doesn't shut off the Windows kernel – that is, the core of the operating system, which enables the software and the hardware to work together. The Windows kernel is saved to disk, similar to when you put your computer to hibernation mode, so that the kernel is ready to boot up quickly the next time. Restart, OTOH, actually does shut down all of the computer's processes, including the kernel.

So, ShutDown + Boot = error retained. Restart = error discarded/corrected (if possible).

That's not entirely the whole story, but it's close enough.

As Joan Rivers used to say, "Can we talk?"

Ditto: Hi again, m'fren',
Yes & Yes:
I learned quite awhile ago that Restart in Win 10 is the choice to totally load everything new. (If that's a good way to say it.)
Actually, I was wondering why your instructions were for "Shut down & Restart"; though it makes sense since (nice alliterating homonyms!) that is when I get my issue to appear.
Your: "So, ShutDown + Boot = error retained. Restart = error discarded/corrected (if possible)." gets a "Right you are!" from me.

And, Yes I have activated Hibernation for those times I want to save everything "as is" *and* totally power down.

But, might you be saying I should turn off hibernation? The current state has existed since the day after I bought this machine two years ago.

jdUnionngarden said:

Ditto: Hi again, m'fren',
Actually, I was wondering why your instructions were for "Shut down & Restart"; though it makes sense since (nice alliterating homonym!) that is when I get my issue to appear.

So, ... we wanted your issue to appear (OR NOT).

And, Yes I have activated Hibernation for those times I want to save everything "as is" *and* totally power down.

Yeah, well, that'll do 'er.
Okay, so here's the rub:

But, might you be saying I should turn off hibernation? The current state has existed since the day after I bought this machine two years ago.

And the font F-up didn't happen until when? What had you done just before your Notepad font started sticking at [expletive deleted] Arial?

"And the font F-up didn't happen until when? What had you done just before your Notepad font started sticking at [expletive deleted] Arial?"

Back to the beginning ...
The last change I made was to uninstall PDF Pro 2 (by Ashampoo); one of the reasons was its (Mickey Mouse) OCR converter always change the existing font to a sans serif font (which I subsequently guessed was probably Arial). I have since deleted most instances of "Ashampoo" (leaving some referring to filenames I am keeping for reference) ... I'm now going delete all I can find and also do the same for "PDF Pro 2".

I'll report back when I can.
ta
--
As it turns out I found only one instance of "Ashampoo" as the name of a shortcut to a .rar archive. It's now gone. And I found no reference to "PDF Pro 2". So, I won't test a shutdown + boot now. Later tho

Okay. Back in a while or tomorrow to carry on.

Life.