Can't delete font files

I have 3 font files on my desktop that I placed there temporarily to do some testing with them. I installed them "temporarily" using Suitcase Fusion.

Since then I am not able to delete those fonts from my computer. Suitcase Fusion shows that they are not activated and I have no programs open (after a fresh restart), yet I can't delete those files.

In the Control Panel → Fonts window, these fonts are shown with a shortcut arrow symbol on them (what does that mean?). I used Nirsoft's "Open Files Viewer" to see if they were open and they are shown to be open, and the process is shown as "System process"

I also tried to delete them from the Control Panel. It asks to confirm the deletion, so I confirm, but it doesn't actually delete.

What can I do to delete these font files? I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.

DaveyD

Posted 2016-05-09T22:43:26.927

Reputation: 205

Answers

This Registry key manages fonts that the system knows about:

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

I discovered in an older answer that removing a value of that key or changing a value's data to point to a nonexistent file will make Windows not see the font as usable.

Therefore, if you remove the Registry entries that correspond to the fonts you want to torch (and then restart to make the system reload everything), you should be able to delete the fonts' files.

Ben N

Posted 2016-05-09T22:43:26.927

Reputation: 32 973

Great! After deleting those keys from the registry and a restart, I was able to delete those font files. Thanks! – DaveyD – 2016-05-11T03:37:01.070

PS> Get-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" – JosephHarriott – 2018-06-25T06:29:23.267

I have the same problem. There is no entry for the front in the registry. I used admin-cmd-prompt to attempt to: own (success), delete (fail). Manual delete via Admin file explorer. File move to desktop (success) followed by delete via APM[All Previous Methods listed] (fail). Renamed file (success) followed by APM. I tried cmd prompt and all the modifiers for del /S /Q , etc. I "unlocked 'secret admin' in cmd prompt via net user administrator /active:yes , upon restart and changing to that new user I successfully deleted 1 of the 2 .ttf's -- Got any more ideas? – Xzila – 2020-01-05T14:58:46.853

If the above does not work on Windows 10, you can also STOP and DISABLE the following two services:

Windows Font Cache Service
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0

Reboot your computer, delete the font files, and re-enable the services by setting the Startup Type back to 'Manual'.

Hans Erlang

Posted 2016-05-09T22:43:26.927

Reputation: 41

3Formal note: in general you shouldn't refer to another answer as "the above". This is not a forum and there's no single answer that will always be directly above yours. Any user can sort answers by votes, time, activity. If your answer gets accepted (OP can change the accepted answer anytime) then it will be the top answer; if the third answer appears and gets upvoted more than your answer then it may be "the above". It would be better to say e.g. "Ben N's answer", because hardly ever a single user posts two answers to the question. Giving the link to the answer you refer to is the safest. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2017-06-18T22:03:20.907

I stopped both services, then ran command prompt as admin and removed the ttf files i did not want. – Robot70 – 2018-03-16T18:15:09.090

One more way to delete a font file on Windows:

Change the font filename (and extension).
Log out of Windows.
Log in again.
Delete the font file.

Abdulrahman Bres

Posted 2016-05-09T22:43:26.927

Reputation: 125

If OP can't delete the file because it is open, it generally can't be renamed for the same reason. – Worthwelle – 2019-11-08T16:20:04.807

1I tried and it worked. The font file is not directly used or open – Abdulrahman Bres – 2019-11-08T16:24:48.037

I had some fonts that were installed in my local app data folder C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Fonts/. In order to delete them I had to delete the corresponding registry values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

I then had to sign out and in again before I could delete the fonts in File Explorer

binaryfunt

Posted 2016-05-09T22:43:26.927

Reputation: 650