How to remove Windows 7 non-latin fonts

13 Kommentare to “How to remove Windows 7 non-latin fonts”

1. Glenn sagt:

   13. März 2010 um 18:32

   Hi, I appreciate the effort you expended in creating the _2mf.bat file. Unfortunately, it did not work for me without modification. I added a couple of lines to your file, 1 to take ownership (using “takeown” of the files in the fonts directory, the other to give full control to the administrator (using “icacls”). My solution was not clean, but it did the job, and I have a single user system, so I am not concerned.
   Thanks again,
   Glenn
2. Martin sagt:

   15. März 2010 um 23:15

   Hi Glenn,
   thanks for your feedback. Yes, in the meantime I tested my batch file on a virtual Windows 7 system and noticed that some files were moved without any problem, but some files could only be moved after changing the owner and the user rights first, exactly as you described.
   I changed the batch file to match these conditions, now the batch changes the ownership and gives full rights to the current user. I replaced the old batch with the new one in my downloads. Fortunately the batch file works even without having to boot into Safe mode.
   Regards,
   Martin
3. Giulio Straccia sagt:

   28. April 2010 um 10:14

   Hi Martin,
   there are 3 font families left and missing in the bat file.

   ebrima.ttf Ebrima
   ebrimabd.ttf Ebrima Bold
   euphemia.ttf Euphemia
   sylfaen.ttf Sylfaen

   Ebrima is something oriental.
   Euphemia is for a canadian local language
   Sylfaen is for Cyrillic, Armenia,…

   don’t know why you didn’t found it on your system… maybe an MS update added it afterwards, however I modified your .bat and they where removed correctly. I suggest to update your very useful script and add a download counter, I would really be corious to know how many people have the same problem worldwide…
4. Martin sagt:

   14. Mai 2010 um 23:13

   Hi Giulio,
   sorry this reply is a little bit late…

   Thanks for your comment and thanks for your help by finding 4 more fonts that were not included in my batch file. They probably were installed on my system originally, but got lost during my tests. Sylfaen, however, seemed to me as one of those Greek math symbols font, so I didn’t recognize it as an additional language font.

   I updated the batch and added those fonts, it can now be downloaded from this link: _2mf-1.1.zip

   To be honest, my batch files hasn’t been downloaded more than ten times by now, maybe I need a better marketing department

   Or – I should just add it to some social sites.
   But before that I wanted to get over the article I wrote at the MS answer forum into a new blog post here.
   And before that I wanted to set up an English blog, because it might confuse the German readers if I mix German and English posts.
   And before THAT I wanted to become a person who doesn’t care about being perfect but just DO things…

   By the way, I just updated my comment subscription plugin, so I will send out an additional e-mail to you as I am not sure whether you subscribed and if if this comment will be automatically mailed to you.
5. Kevin sagt:

   2. Juni 2010 um 09:30

   Hi Martin, As I’ve said on the M$ “Social” I love your little script, so much I’ve adapted it to do other things for me !! When I used it I ended up with Traditional Arabic (x2) left behind but that was no hardship to remedy. I did have a minor issue afterwards with some of my older software. They tend to like the pseudo-font “MS Shell Dlg” which (from experience) I know leans heavily on micross.ttf or Microsoft Sans Serif. Might be better to remove this one from the batch file ?? Anyhow, apart from that all A.O.K
   Best Regards Kevin
   a.k.a Elmer BeFuddled
6. Kevin sagt:

   3. Juni 2010 um 02:57

   Hi Martin,

   After using your script to remove all the non-Latin scripted fonts I decided to study it.
   I then did a bit of editing with it and I ended up making two batch files that removed all the non English language folders from inside the system32 and the SysWOW64 folders.
   This has now got me thinking a bit more (a dangerous thing I can tell you!!).
   what I’m wondering is could I use it to remove all the foreign language Folders inside my Program folders.
   Would this file search through the program folder and all the sub folders inside it??
   I’m asking you as I’m quite useless at writing scripts and I was well pleased when I changed the batch file and it actually worked to remove foreign language files!!

   Best Regards Kevin
   a.k.a Elmer BeFuddled
7. Martin sagt:

   7. Juni 2010 um 21:53

   Hi Kevin,
   thanks for your appreciation.

   I had a look into the list and you are right, that Microsoft Sans Serif (micross.ttf) shouldn’t be on the list so I removed it from the batchfile, updated batch is now _2mf-1.2.zip.

   I remember well that Microsoft Sans Serif was an important Windows font, I think it was even used as the title font for all windows, but they changed it to Tahoma at least since Windows XP.
   Those two Arabic fonts you metioned, do you remember the name? If so I could add them to my batch file, too.

   Regarding the language folders, are you talking about the folders with the doubled language letters, e.g. “de-DE” for German or “en-US” for US-English in the system32 folder? That’s a pretty long list of language folders. I even didn’t notice them so far, so I don’t bother they are there, however I must admit that it’s always a good feeling to have a “leaner system”. But that is a lot of effort, so it’s helpful doing that with a script, too – just in case you want to set up your system again.
   I mainly created my batch because I stumbled upon too many fonts I don’t need, every time I browsed through the fonts list in Word, Excel and GIMP.

   I can’t find any language folders in my c:\program files directly. Do you have language folders there? They only language folders I could find are those in the MS Games folders, e.g.
   c:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Chess\de-DE\
   But that is the only language folder under Chess and because I have a german Windows 7, I guess the de-DE folder should stay there
8. Minh sagt:

   14. Juni 2010 um 08:30

   Hi Martin,
   Thanks for your batchfile.
   I notice that the link for “_2mf-1.2.zip” point to the old “_2mf-1.1.zip”. Please check it
9. Kevin sagt:

   14. Juni 2010 um 13:22

   Hi Martin, I’ve referenced you Windows 7 Forums. I hope you don’t mind.
10. Martin sagt:

    14. Juni 2010 um 16:22

    Hi Minh,
    that’s true, I didn’t change the link after copy/pasting…
    Now it’s the correct link.

    @Kevin:
    No, I don’t mind. Thanks that you are making my blog (or at least this article) more popular
    I just wonder now where to post any following updates: here in my blog in the article itself or in the comments, in another blog article, on the MS answers forum or in a totally new (English) blog and if I should move this article there. I guess I’ll have to decide soon, if this article becomes more popluar.
11. Bill Woodruff sagt:

    28. Juli 2010 um 03:54

    Hi Martin,

    Many thanks for your hard work on this !

    Will this un-installation technique also work on Win Vista SP2 ?

    thanks, Bill
12. Martin sagt:

    6. August 2010 um 17:25

    Hi Bill,
    just came back from holiday

    I am not sure if my batch will work for Windows Vista, as far as I know Windows 7 offered new/more fonts. I would need to check and start my Windows Vista from a different harddrive, but that would mean I have to exchange harddrives in my notebook.
    Do you have any fonts you would like to remove but can’t? Then please provide me with a list of these fonts – or at least some of them.
    In general the batch file should work for any fonts, providing the names are correct.
    Regards, Martin
13. Kevin sagt:

    12. August 2010 um 09:57

    Hi Martin, F.A.O Bill Woodruff,
    I just thought I would let you and Bill know that this has been tried and ran OK on a Vista machine.

    Best Regards,
    Kevin
    a.k.a Elmer BeFuddled