asked on Open Type Fonts become uninstalled after reboot (Windows 7 - 64bit)
Hello all,
I am experiencing a rather perplexing problem with a family of OTF fonts becoming installed after a reboot. This problem is repeatable and I've scoured the Internet for answers and found no solution.
Specifications:
- Windows 7, 64 bit with plenty of HD space and memory (no other known issues)
- Fonts are commercial and licensed (i.e. professional fonts)
they are only available as OTF and no, I cannot convert them to TTF b/c I must remain
compatible with our graphics designers.
Important: The problem extends to two separate OTF font families from two separate
vendors. Besides other computers not being affected, this is not a fault of
a specific font. This is clearly a problem on this one computer.
After I install the fonts, everything works perfectly (i.e. Adobe Illustrator happily displays the fonts). However, after I reboot:
- The fonts are no longer available to Illustrator.
- The fonts no longer display in the Windows font folder.
- But the fonts are still in the physical folder, if I do a directory listing in a DOS command window.
Why must I re-install these fonts each time I reboot? What is wrong?
Note: This problem is unique to this Windows computer. My home computer does not exhibit this behavior.
Thank you
I am experiencing a rather perplexing problem with a family of OTF fonts becoming installed after a reboot. This problem is repeatable and I've scoured the Internet for answers and found no solution.
Specifications:
- Windows 7, 64 bit with plenty of HD space and memory (no other known issues)
- Fonts are commercial and licensed (i.e. professional fonts)
they are only available as OTF and no, I cannot convert them to TTF b/c I must remain
compatible with our graphics designers.
Important: The problem extends to two separate OTF font families from two separate
vendors. Besides other computers not being affected, this is not a fault of
a specific font. This is clearly a problem on this one computer.
After I install the fonts, everything works perfectly (i.e. Adobe Illustrator happily displays the fonts). However, after I reboot:
- The fonts are no longer available to Illustrator.
- The fonts no longer display in the Windows font folder.
- But the fonts are still in the physical folder, if I do a directory listing in a DOS command window.
Why must I re-install these fonts each time I reboot? What is wrong?
Note: This problem is unique to this Windows computer. My home computer does not exhibit this behavior.
Thank you
Windows 7Fonts TypographyAdobe Creative Suite CS
Last Comment
John
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ASKER
Thanks but I am admin on both computers.
From the DOS CMD window, I compared all the other installed OTF fonts to the Windows Font Window... all the other OTF fonts appear to work as intended.
I had an idea that I am about to test....
After removing all the fonts of the two affected families from the Windows Font Window... then I noticed that they were still physically in the c:\windows\fonts folder... along with duplicates in TTF format (for an unrelated reason). So font removal doesn't actually physically remove the fonts??
I opened a admin version of DOS command window and removed all traces of both families of the fonts. Then I reinstalled a fresh copy of only the OTF versions of each font family.
My thought was that the conflicting OTF/TTF fonts might be the cause of my troubles. I'm about to reboot now. If the problem persists, it is some other unknown issue.
Here I go....
From the DOS CMD window, I compared all the other installed OTF fonts to the Windows Font Window... all the other OTF fonts appear to work as intended.
I had an idea that I am about to test....
After removing all the fonts of the two affected families from the Windows Font Window... then I noticed that they were still physically in the c:\windows\fonts folder... along with duplicates in TTF format (for an unrelated reason). So font removal doesn't actually physically remove the fonts??
I opened a admin version of DOS command window and removed all traces of both families of the fonts. Then I reinstalled a fresh copy of only the OTF versions of each font family.
My thought was that the conflicting OTF/TTF fonts might be the cause of my troubles. I'm about to reboot now. If the problem persists, it is some other unknown issue.
Here I go....
Let us know about your test. I would remove fonts and restart in between before installing new ones.
... Thinkpads_User
... Thinkpads_User
ASKER
Thanks.
The first experiment failed.
Next experiment,
1) Again, I physically removed the fonts. Even used the excellent free tool (Everything rapid search tool - http://www.voidtools.com/) to confirm there were no physical traces of either font family.
2) I shut down Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 and then renamed FNTCACHE.DAT (forcing Windows to rebuild).
3) Reboot
4) Reinstall the two font families. *BUT* Why am I seeing the message, "The 'font name' is already installed. Do you want to replace it?" I should not see this message because the font does not exist anywhere in the system! What is up with that?
Anyhow, continued by clicking 'Yes' to reinstall all the fonts.
5) Confirmed the fonts are recognized by Windows apps.
6) Reboot
7) Fonts are GONE from the Windows Font window! (but are still physically present in the directory!).
I give up!
The first experiment failed.
Next experiment,
1) Again, I physically removed the fonts. Even used the excellent free tool (Everything rapid search tool - http://www.voidtools.com/) to confirm there were no physical traces of either font family.
2) I shut down Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 and then renamed FNTCACHE.DAT (forcing Windows to rebuild).
3) Reboot
4) Reinstall the two font families. *BUT* Why am I seeing the message, "The 'font name' is already installed. Do you want to replace it?" I should not see this message because the font does not exist anywhere in the system! What is up with that?
Anyhow, continued by clicking 'Yes' to reinstall all the fonts.
5) Confirmed the fonts are recognized by Windows apps.
6) Reboot
7) Fonts are GONE from the Windows Font window! (but are still physically present in the directory!).
I give up!
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>Open the font folder with Windows Explorer (not DOS or any other kind of Explorer).
>The fonts should appear to be fonts.
Yes, they appeared as fonts. There is (was) nothing unusual about how any of the fonts appeared in Explorer. Right-click worked as normal with the two font families.
>Are there any fonts that look different because they are not installed?
No.
>On the problem computer, uninstall (and/or delete) all relevant fonts to this exercise
>including any duplicates.
I cannot uninstall them because, after reboot, they no longer appear in Windows Explorer (font folder). I will have to manually delete them from admin level CMD Window.
>Restart. Run SFC /SCANNOW and allow to complete. Restart again.
Okay, done. I'll reboot, reinstall the fonts, test that they installed, and then reboot again.
Thanks for your continued help with this perplexing problem.
>The fonts should appear to be fonts.
Yes, they appeared as fonts. There is (was) nothing unusual about how any of the fonts appeared in Explorer. Right-click worked as normal with the two font families.
>Are there any fonts that look different because they are not installed?
No.
>On the problem computer, uninstall (and/or delete) all relevant fonts to this exercise
>including any duplicates.
I cannot uninstall them because, after reboot, they no longer appear in Windows Explorer (font folder). I will have to manually delete them from admin level CMD Window.
>Restart. Run SFC /SCANNOW and allow to complete. Restart again.
Okay, done. I'll reboot, reinstall the fonts, test that they installed, and then reboot again.
Thanks for your continued help with this perplexing problem.
ASKER
Remember my earlier note:
"4) Reinstall the two font families. *BUT* Why am I seeing the message, "The 'font name' is already installed. Do you want to replace it?" I should not see this message because the font does not exist anywhere in the system! What is up with that?"
It appears as though some Windows cache still thinks the fonts are installed. I am wondering if this might be a clue to the problem at hand. What can I do to fix this? I did try renaming FNTCACHE.DAT (forcing Windows to rebuild) but obviously that didn't help.
"4) Reinstall the two font families. *BUT* Why am I seeing the message, "The 'font name' is already installed. Do you want to replace it?" I should not see this message because the font does not exist anywhere in the system! What is up with that?"
It appears as though some Windows cache still thinks the fonts are installed. I am wondering if this might be a clue to the problem at hand. What can I do to fix this? I did try renaming FNTCACHE.DAT (forcing Windows to rebuild) but obviously that didn't help.
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Results from: SFC /SCANNOW
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
>One person solved their problem by reinstalling Windows. If it comes to it,
>that may be the solution here.
That is a brute force solution that I'd rather avoid...b/c I am not experiencing any other issues. In fact, I would much rather create a start up batch that automatically re-installs these fonts upon every boot up.
>font folder a standard writeable folder.
That is indeed a strange idea that I cannot understand why that would fix the problem of fonts becoming uninstalled. But this gave me an idea. I believe these fonts originated from a CD... so I'll check to see if I am installing them as write only. If so, I'll remove any attributes before reinstalling them.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
>One person solved their problem by reinstalling Windows. If it comes to it,
>that may be the solution here.
That is a brute force solution that I'd rather avoid...b/c I am not experiencing any other issues. In fact, I would much rather create a start up batch that automatically re-installs these fonts upon every boot up.
>font folder a standard writeable folder.
That is indeed a strange idea that I cannot understand why that would fix the problem of fonts becoming uninstalled. But this gave me an idea. I believe these fonts originated from a CD... so I'll check to see if I am installing them as write only. If so, I'll remove any attributes before reinstalling them.
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I noticed a number of odd attributes for each of these font families but what ultimately corrected the problem was changing one or two attributes:
1) Unchecking the property, "Encrypt contents to secure data"
and/or
2) Changing permissions from "Read & Execute"/"Read" to "Full" permissions.
Problem is now GONE!! :-)
1) Unchecking the property, "Encrypt contents to secure data"
and/or
2) Changing permissions from "Read & Execute"/"Read" to "Full" permissions.
Problem is now GONE!! :-)
So then it was a permissions issue as suggested earlier in the suggestion about file / folder attributes.
.... Thinkpads_User
.... Thinkpads_User
ASKER
Thanks to everyone for helping out.
@sconnell - You are very welcome and I was happy to help.
.... Thinkpads_User
.... Thinkpads_User
I should also add that I am unaware of anything that could be forcing the uninstall of these fonts after each reboot.
Fonts-uninstalling.png