changing default windows font

This page is mainly about changing default windows font

This is a bit of a hack. Basically, you remove the pointers from the Windows registry to the font files for the Segoe UI fonts (which is used for Windows Explorer) which makes Windows think that the font files are damaged or missing. Then you add an entry for a 'font substitute' for Segoe UI to force Windows to use the font of your choice instead.

WARNING : This will make changes to the registry. Back up your registry before you attempt this.

Press WIN+R, type 'regedit' and press [ENTER]

Accept the User Access Control warning - you know what you are doing ;)

Navigate to ...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

Look for the font in the list that you would like to change the Windows Explorer font to and make a note of the font name.

First, let's backup the relevant keys in the registry in case we want to reverse the changes. You could do this by exporting the whole branch from the registry but this will break any new fonts you install after performing this hack.

Look carefully down the list for all the entries beginning 'Segoe UI'. This is the font used by Windows Explorer.

Create a notepad file with the following content (note - your registry entries may be different)...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"="segoeui.ttf"
"Segoe UI Black (TrueType)"="seguibl.ttf"
"Segoe UI Black Italic (TrueType)"="seguibli.ttf"
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"="segoeuib.ttf"
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"="segoeuiz.ttf"
"Segoe UI Emoji (TrueType)"="seguiemj.ttf"
"Segoe UI Historic (TrueType)"="seguihis.ttf"
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"="segoeuii.ttf"
"Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"="segoeuil.ttf"
"Segoe UI Light Italic (TrueType)"="seguili.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"="seguisb.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semibold Italic (TrueType)"="seguisbi.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semilight (TrueType)"="segoeuisl.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semilight Italic (TrueType)"="seguisli.ttf"
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"="seguisym.ttf"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"=-

Note that I've make sure that I've got a line for each font that I'm going to clear in a minute. The last line is actually designed to remove the registry value that we are going to add in the next step. Go ahead and save this text file as 'font_substitution_reverse.reg'.

Now create a new text document with the following content...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Black (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Black Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Emoji (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Historic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Light Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semibold Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semilight (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semilight Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"="DESIRED FONT"

...replacing "DESIRED FONT" with the name of the font you'd like to use instead. Go ahead and save this as 'font_substitution.reg'. WARNING : DO NOT change the font to Windings or some such graphic font or you will not be able to use your computer!

Now the moment of truth.

Find the registry file 'font_sustitution.reg'. If it doesn't have a registry editor icon, you've probably got .txt on the end of the filename. Remedy this before coming back to this step.

After accepting the UAC warning, you should get another warning about the dangers involved in altering the registry yada, yada. Click {Yes} and then {OK}.

Now restart your computer and keep your fingers crossed :)

Last modified: October 5th, 2021

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changing default windows font