How to Reset Windows 7 to its default font for the whole system?

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5

This might sound a little bit silly but please bear with me. Somehow I changed my default display font, the one that Windows uses for system dialog boxes, accept/cancel buttons, pretty much everything in the system (it even goes as far as to change how my the text in my web browser appears). Now everything that it's affected looks like under the effects of the bold button in office (very black and very thick words). This is an inconvenience for example on some mail accounts who use this effect to display unread messages. Is there any way to return it to its default state, non "bold" typography for the whole system?

Fellknight

Posted 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Reputation: 663

1Since Windows Vista, I haven't changed the default Windows font. They did a great job designing Segoe UI as he font for all UI stuff. So simple, so readable, so clean. – thenonhacker – 2009-09-11T22:36:12.933

Answers

14

  1. Right-click the desktop. Choose "Personalize."
  2. Click Window Color and Appearance.
  3. Click Advanced Appearance Settings
  4. Go through each item and reset fonts (where appropriate) to Segoe UI 9pt, not bold, not italic. (All the settings in a default Win7 or Vista machine will be Segoe UI 9pt.)

If this doesn't work -- or I should say, if all your settings here are already Segoe UI 9pt -- then you have probably inadvertently changed your ClearType settings. ClearType is how Windows draws fonts on-screen, and depending on the screen, different settings will be needed for optimal font display.

To fix this in Win7:

  1. Right-click the desktop. Choose "Personalize."
  2. Click "Display"
  3. Click "Adjust ClearType Text"
  4. A window will pop up. Make sure its checkbox ("Turn on ClearType") is checked. Click "Next."
  5. Follow the prompts through the wizard, adjusting until the fonts look "right" again.

John Rudy

Posted 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Reputation: 3 267

Comment by @bacizone: I am not sure this is the answer for the question. Even after copying back the original Win 7 fonts and activating them, they do not come back. My Twitter page looks terrible with the bold letters.

Any other idea? – Ivo Flipse – 2010-04-14T14:06:34.987

11

This was mentioned on a Microsoft Forum:

  1. Open Fonts by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.
  2. In the left pane, click Font settings.
  3. Click Restore default font settings.

...

This also removes all manual changes that you've made to your display settings.

Failing this, you may wish to use System Restore and rollback prior to when the change was originally made.

Kez

Posted 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Reputation: 15 359

Wow such an easy fix. Thanks so much for this!! – AntonioCS – 2015-11-12T15:03:17.040

Your answer is really the only one which deserves to be mentioned in this thread. That being said, unfortunately, it doesn't work for me (on Windows 8).

Selecting "restore default font settings" grey the "OK" button and doesn't change any font setting. I wonder if this "restore" is related to font sizes as defined into the Display Control Panel. – Cyan – 2015-12-03T10:42:54.097

2

  1. Search segoeui.ttf via explorer and install the font with the "font view".
  2. Right-click the desktop. Choose "Personalize."
  3. Open Window Color and select for every font used things in the windows - Segoe UI Its for Windows 7 only! - the other Windows Version are similar!

Ameyah

Posted 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Reputation: 21

1

If I put both index fingers on the mouse pad and swipe one left or right it changed the font size. Hold your right finger still and slide the left finger to the left to make it smaller and to the right to make it larger.

Rick

Posted 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Reputation: 11

Asked: 2009-09-11T19:30:00.110

Viewed: 287 503 times

Active: 2013-12-23T15:48:13.863