Unable to install fonts on Windows 10

128

I'm using Windows 10 x64 Pro and I'm unable to preview or install fonts.

When I try to preview a font (double click or Right Click >> Preview), I get an error message that reads "The requested file <font file> is not a valid font file" as shown in the screenshot below:

When I try to install a font (Right Click >> Install), another error that reads "The file <font file> does not appear to be a valid font" is shown (screenshot below):

Things I've checked:

I have UAC enabled in my registry but set to lowest setting "Never Notify". I thought UAC had something to do with this, but the behavior is the same whether or not EnableLUA is set to 0 or 1 in registry.
I have checked the Event Viewer (Application and System sections) for hints to the problem, but this error is not reported at all in the logs from what I see. This seems strange.

Why can't I install fonts on Windows 10? I verified the behavior with several downloaded otf and ttf font files. So I'm fairly certain the files are not corrupted.

EDIT

When I go to the Fonts section of Control Panel, I do not see an "Install Font" option in the "File" menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

void.pointer

Posted 2015-08-16T02:26:42.160

Reputation: 1 809

Have you tried following Microsoft ?

– pun – 2015-08-16T02:45:03.310

1I don't see an install font option in step 2. See my edits to my original post for screenshot. – void.pointer – 2015-08-16T03:30:15.937

Next procedure works for me: download dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.35.zip ==> RightClick, Properties, Unblock, OK ==> Extract all.. Then navigate to dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.35\ttf folder, select (something or even all), RightClick the selection, Install

– JosefZ – 2015-08-16T08:01:47.780

@JosefZ I don't understand what that accomplishes. I used 7-Zip to extract the archive, and from the extracted directory I attempt to install the fonts. Your solution also does not explain why "Install Font' option is missing from the Fonts folder. – void.pointer – 2015-08-16T12:36:31.533

Interestingly, this problem also makes loading web fonts fail with error code CSS3111 "unknown error" when using @font-face in IE11 (but not Edge!). Enabling the firewall helps there, too. – fpbhb – 2015-10-16T15:48:31.197

Answers

159

After a week of trying everything. The answer as weird as it sounds is to enable the windows firewall. I know, makes no sense right? It's not connected to font settings, however once "On" I was able to fix my issue with installing fonts on windows 10 and without an error message!

Geremy V

Posted 2015-08-16T02:26:42.160

Reputation: 1 224

25What the freak? – void.pointer – 2015-08-17T20:57:52.603

39Wow incredibly surprising and scary. I enabled Windows Firewall service and fonts are working perfectly again. I'd love to hear a logical explanation to this from someone. This is madness. – void.pointer – 2015-08-18T01:33:20.457

7Yep can confirm this works – Riz – 2015-08-25T19:53:23.083

5Good news is, once the font is installed, I can re-disable the firewall. The font will be kept even after reboot. – Crend King – 2015-09-09T05:51:29.490

4This may become one of the most stupefying solutions ever. Makes you wonder about the design choices made in Redmond. :D – shevy – 2015-09-10T12:43:06.330

11that's not a valid question. It is a firewall, it has a specific function - allowing or blocking network traffic. If it can be disabled, the system shouldn't start falling apart. And I'd like to know why securing network traffic and local font installation are connected in any way. – Dirk Trilsbeek – 2015-09-10T15:14:25.947

2@Oskar What difference does that make? People can do it, so they will. Why do people text and drive, go months without taking backups, smoke cigarettes, gamble, spend enormous amounts of money on Fabergé eggs, etc.? I disable host firewalls all the time for convenience, testing, troubleshooting, etc. – Aaron Bertrand – 2015-09-10T15:18:12.907

There have been a number of attacks against font parsing. Could this be an attempt to mitigate what those attacks could theoretically do?

– ehdv – 2015-09-10T19:55:12.437

6Theoretically a possibility, but if that's the case then why not say 'Please enable the windows firewall before installing fonts for security reasons' with possibly a button to ignore the error and install anyway, instead of some random error that is caused by something seemingly unrelated – RyanTimmons91 – 2015-09-10T20:21:23.307

1This most likely has to do with Security Zones: a bookkeeping scheme which enables windows to prompt you differently when you e.g. run an executable that has been downloaded from the internet. Security Zones configuration has a special policy section pertaining to fonts. Enabling the firewall must make the system more trust-ish. I suppose it makes sense that when you reduce the local system security, the system responds by being more hardcore about this stuff. Probably – Yorik – 2015-09-11T14:44:26.317

1To test that theory: Remove fonts in question. Download the Sysinternals suite. In an administrator shell, run streams -d * on the downloads directory. Disable firewall. Try to install fonts again. What happens? – Tomalak – 2015-09-12T06:47:38.763

I'm sorry but it's a perfectly valid question as you are not supposed to disable the firewall service. If you want to turn off the firewall functionality you simply do that with the options given while the service is still running: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766337(v=ws.10).aspx

The firewall service is required for literally TONS of features in Windows from games to IPSEC to what-have-not and is likely to be used for new functionality in the future. The error message in this case sure is stupid - but expect things to break when randomly disabling system services.

– Oskar Duveborn – 2015-09-23T08:51:46.033

2OMG! this is like the 5th item in Win10 that forces you use have Windows Firewall enabled just to be able to make a change or install something. There are many other little settings all over Win10 that also requires the firewall to work, it is so annoying. Thank you for the tip. – AllGamer – 2016-02-28T00:49:17.187

Doesn't work for me firewall was already enabled can't install fonts. – Sam – 2016-08-31T11:26:31.120

1Yes, this is the solution. If you cannot change Windows Firewall settings due to some company Admin limitations, start the service of Windows Firewall solves the problem. Windows+r, type "services.msc", find "Windows Firewall", change it to "Automatic", and initiate it, that simple... it sucks, yes, and makes no sense. – WesternGun – 2016-09-26T07:49:54.960

I did a search and found a post here, where you can find a screeshot of the error log here, saying "CreateAppContainerProfile failed with error 0x800706D9 because it was unable to register with the firewall." It may shed some lights to the problem.

– WesternGun – 2016-09-26T08:02:29.597

I already have a perfectly good firewall INSTALLED ON MY ROUTER or (gasp) ON MY ACTUAL HARDWARE FIREWALL! Just way too many really stupid people working at Microsoft nowadays. LET ME OPT-IN IF I WANT YOUR STUPID CRAP! STOP BREAKING MY SYSTEM BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO USE YOUR STUPID CRAP! – jerhewet – 2016-10-01T21:32:40.573

1I don't have enough rep to answer (since this is protected) but in addition to having to turn on my firewall, I also found that you can't install a font that lives on a subst mapped drive. As soon as I copied my font to a "real" location, the installer worked. – drglove – 2016-10-31T22:18:25.213

@AllGamer, What are the other items you found that were blocked by this firewall bug? I'd like to note them down so I don't go on another wild goose chase – BelgoCanadian – 2017-12-28T18:11:37.540

Additionally, is there a way to fix all problems related to this firewall bug? Like a registry key to ignore restrictions when Windows Firewall is turned off? – BelgoCanadian – 2017-12-28T18:15:05.440

did not work for my DroidSansMono.ttf font! :( – ShAkKiR – 2018-05-30T06:58:28.410

I had to Right click and select Install for all users – nick-s – 2019-05-13T07:14:52.377

I met this problem as well through my git repositories hosting font files. Here's a weird solution that worked for me. Copy (and yes its Ctrl + C not Ctrl + X for cutting) the file somewhere else or even in the same directory and the copied file will work.

Also the top solution does not work for me. My firewall is already activated.

Further digging showed that copying did not change any of the file contents. Both are the same, I ran sha1sum on both files, and their hashes matched.

Later checking the security properties on the original font file, Windows popped up with "The permissions on X.ttf are incorrectly ordered, which may cause some entries to be ineffective.". So it looks like my git cloning of the repository is causing some messed up permissions to be set upon placing the font file in Windows. In that case, it does have some relation to the security and permissions system on Windows. That just means the error that font viewer application is giving back is very badly worded.

CMCDragonkai

Posted 2015-08-16T02:26:42.160

Reputation: 349

1yup, i can confirm this too, also, installing fonts from removable media will surely fail without any error message. after copied the fonts to local disk, i can install it – am05mhz – 2016-07-31T06:43:39.143

did not work for my DroidSansMono.ttf font! :( – ShAkKiR – 2018-05-30T06:58:35.317