Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10  

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    Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10

    Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10

    How to Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Performance & Maintenance
    17 Oct 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10


    The font cache is a file or set of files used by Windows to manage and display the fonts installed on your PC so they load faster.

    Sometimes the font cache may become corrupted and cause fonts to be garbled, not rendering properly, or displaying invalid characters. To fix the font cache corruption, you will need to delete the old font cache and restart the computer afterwards to rebuild a new font cache.

    This tutorial will show you how to rebuild the font cache to repair it in Windows 10.


    You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to rebuild the font cache.




    Here's How:

    1 Click/tap on the download button below to download the Rebuild_Font_Cache.bat file.

    Download

    Here is the contents of the .bat file for reference:


    Code:
    @echo off
    
    :: Stop and disable "Windows Font Cache Service" service
    :FontCache
    sc stop "FontCache"
    sc config "FontCache" start=disabled
    sc query FontCache | findstr /I /C:"STOPPED" 
    if not %errorlevel%==0 (goto FontCache)
    
    
    :: Grant access rights to current user for "%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService" folder and contents
    icacls "%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService" /grant "%UserName%":F /C /T /Q
    
    
    :: Delete font cache
    del /A /F /Q "%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache\*FontCache*"
    
    del /A /F /Q "%WinDir%\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT"
    
    
    :: Enable and start "Windows Font Cache Service" service
    sc config "FontCache" start=auto
    sc start "FontCache"

    2 Save the .bat file to your desktop.

    3 Unblock the .bat file.

    4 Right click or press and hold on the .bat file, and click/tap on Run as administrator.

    5 An elevated command prompt will now open, run the commands in the .bat file to delete the font cache, and close.

    6 When finished, restart the computer to rebuild a new font cache.


    That's it,
    Shawn Brink






  1. Posts : 2,450
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #1

    Hi Shawn,

    In the %WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache folder, under normal operation there are 4 files:

    FontCache-S-1-5-18.dat
    ~FontCache-FontFace.dat
    ~FontCache-S-1-5-21-.....dat
    ~FontCache-System.dat

    Once you stop the service by running: sc stop "FontCache", the open files (signified with ~ in the beginning of the filename), become normal files and you have:
    FontCache-S-1-5-18.dat
    FontCache-FontFace.dat
    FontCache-S-1-5-21-.....dat
    FontCache-System.dat

    Thus, when the delete command is run, it fails to delete the files starting with ~ since there are no such files.

    Should the delete command in the script be:
    del /A /F /Q "%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache\*FontCache*"

    or leave it as is
    del /A /F /Q "%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache\~FontCache*"
    as we shouldn't touch those files?

    Awaiting your prompt, as always response :)

    BR. Dimitri
    Last edited by ddelo; 20 Mar 2017 at 07:03.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,657
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Hello @Dimitri, :)

    I like *FontCache* better than ~FontCache as well. I also added a check in the .bat to verify if the service has stopped before continuing.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 1
    windows 10
       #3

    Hi Shawn,

    I tried your script on our windows 10 machine... it deleted the FNTCACHE.DAT file in the windows32 folder but not the other ones in the other location. There was no complaint by the system that I could see.

    Ideas?

    Jeffrey
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 68,657
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Hello Jeffrey, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

    That's ok. It's normal for it to not be able to delete some of the font caches that are currently in use. Plus, some of them get recreated fresh almost immediately after being deleted.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 1
    Win10
       #5

    Hi Shawn,

    My SSD crashed on me when I started for the first time after my holidays.
    Everything else was okay, but my fonts were not working properly. The Windows Fonts folder was showing only a handful on fonts even though many more were installed.
    When I used your *.bat (Thanks a lot for creating it, btw!!) & do the restart everything seems back to normal: all the fonts show up in the Fonts folder & are displayed correctly in Indesign/Word.
    But when I restart another time, it's back to the old problem: only a handful show up in the folder, and the others are not displyed correctly in Indesign.
    Any idea what I could do to stop this behaviour?

    thanks a lot from Germany,
    Roger
    Last edited by roger1313; 19 Jun 2017 at 07:36.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4
    Windows 10 Home
       #6

    Worked, then failed to display fonts on next boot-up


    Shawn,

    Your .bat 'fix' worked wonderfully yesterday - made all my installed fonts accessible in the Word 2007 drop-down list. but this morning after booting up, everything is back to "There is insufficient memory or disk space.Word cannot display the requested font".

    What is weird is that Excel 2007 (installed from the same Office 2007 diskette) can access all the fonts and has never given me this error message. I just added to an existing Excel workbook with no problem changing fonts or text size. WHY just Word? This situation started for me two days ago, and never occurred before then. I tried the 'rename the .dotm files to old* and my HP printer is using the same drivers it always has used.

    Where do we go from here?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,657
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Hello J, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

    Are you low on disk space?

    Did you disable the page file, or set the page file too low by chance?
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 4
    Windows 10 Home
       #8

    1TB hard drive only 1/4 full, and have not made any changes to page file setting. I did find out that Office 365 was installed 7/16/17, and I just removed that - it seems that my challenge started then!! That must have been Microsoft forcing it onto my PC, as I did nothing to install it!! Still working to get my Office 2007 set up again, as it seems to be needing something.......
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 68,657
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #9

    It could be an issue with Office 2007 being installed on Windows 10. Office 2007 has not been tested or officially supported by Windows 10.

    Which versions of Office work with Windows 10? - Office Support
      My Computers


 

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