Notepad Default Font changing on reboot

Welcome back.
No change ... hmmm ... time to start thinking outside the box.

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.

How, exactly, is this done?

Everyone is invited to jump in ...

Got the dog to the vet (shots, just like us folks) and the groceries bought (gotta eat, even with Arial coming back), so thought I'd put in a word more before retiring for the night.

Primarily, the system parks the memory of what was in use in the hiberfil.sys file. It can get quite large. You might take a min to check the size of C:\hiberfil.sys currently. I've seen 'em over 3GB. The system saves everything you were recently up to in that file, and still lets you close all apps and stop the system itself. When you reboot, it's ready to open the apps you had open last, and to load them with what you were doing last, and it does all this without more than a quarter of the time you would spend getting those apps to open and the files to reload without the stored help. It's kinda like Prefetch, the folder where your recent app usage is stored: it cuts the number of ms needed to re-start recently used apps. In theory. It was more important on HDDs than it is on SSDs, I think, 'counta disk paths to things were recorded. Disk paths aren't a big thing with SSDs.

So, ... and you saw this coming, didn't you? Run a cmd prompt as Admin and type powercfg.exe /hibernate off <Enter>, close the CLI, and then go to C: and see whether Windows deleted hiberfil.sys, and if not, delete 'er. Then maybe you should try all (or some, or one) of the tricks again: first set Notepad to Consolas, shut down, wait 30, and power up and check Notepad. Reasonable? You bet.

Now I'm not entirely sanguine about this working, but if it does and you find trusty old Consolas still on board, then you could (assuming hiberfil.sys file is history ... bad choice of words; it is history, so assuming it's gone, try re-enabling hibernation with the same command with "on." And then go through more tests as you wish.

If, OTOH, it doesn't work, we're back to square One and trying to guess whether those PDF apps did you wrong, and if they did, what you can do about them and their detritus. Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!

Until tomorrow, then. Rest well. Good chatting with you again.

Glad your puppy is now safe from covid ; I wish all here in the U.S. were so pro-active ... we're still trying to reach only 70% of the humans.
C'est la vie!
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...erm... and if I don't have a C:\hiberfil.sys file, what is one to do? See attached [I also ran a full search of C: coming up with no hits.] View hidden files is turned on. ... oh, so sad





Enjoy your new day!

That would indicate that you do not have hibernate enabled. Which kinda obliterates all hope that hibernate (in shutdown) had anything at all to do with pernicious Arial.

Just out of curiosity, would you check your power settings?
Control Panel
Power Options
Choose What The Power Buttons Do
Change settings that are currently unavailable

If you you see Hibernate under Shutdown settings the feature is enabled.
If you don't see the Hibernate option, it ain't.

I'm afraid I've overextended my reach here, and my suggestions have gained you nothing.

You win some, ...

I just spent a few mins writing what follows, but I don't think I'm prepared to recommend it, so have a look and then just ignore it.
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Did you try the trick of making a copy of notepad.exe from your notebook to a flash drive and replacing the notepad.exe that's now in your desktop Windows\System32? That probably won't fix the problem, either, but it's easy, and it's maybe worth a try. I think first you have to Take Ownership of desktop notepad.exe, then delete it, and then paste notebook notepad.exe to an empty spot at the bottom of the System32 file list. I'd make a C: image first, but then I make a C: image before I empty the Recycle Bin.

Just kidding. About the RB, not the image.
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H A N Day

Dan

...erm... thinking you missed the photo showing the "Hibernate" choice on Start>Power. Here it is from the Control Panel.
Awhile back I mentioned the laptop notepad.exe was exactly the same size (to the bit) as the one on my desktop. I didn't think it was worth copying it over. FWIW
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I appreciate all your help and would like to open this conversation to others who may have other thoughts ...
perhaps viewing the issue from a different perspective.

Power Settings:

Just one more avenue to explore re: the font.

Also, you might try first changing the font in Notepad to a completely different font, and then exporting the Notepad Registry key "immediately after" the next boot. If you Export it and save as type Text File, and open it, it will show the exact time of the last write to Arial (to which you say it keeps reverting on boot). If it does co-incide with your boot time, you might try using the Event Manager (sorted according to time), and "AutoRuns" from MS to see if there is anything there which might be changing that key on startup.

AutoRuns (To view the startup entries on the System)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...loads/autoruns

Alternative to view Windows Events: MyEventViewer (To target the Registry key change time in an easier way)
Alternative to standard event viewer of Windows

@ das10

Might do better with
FullEventLogView v1.62 - Event Log Viewer for Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista

Here: FullEventLogView - Event Log Viewer for Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista

Nir Sofer says it's more reliable with recent Windows versions.

Your catch in #46 was a great one. I assumed un-hiding Hidden files (see #43) implied the other was done. My bad. Again.

@das10
Right you are:

Found it!
& @Wisewiz
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Thanks guys, I will look at new suggestions when "life"permits!
Stay tuned