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How to restore default fonts in Windows 10

If you’ve been using your Windows 10 PC for a while, you have probably made some changes to the way things work. For instance, one of the most common adjustments people make to their PCs is changing the font settings. While this may be a good idea for personalizing your Windows experience, at some point, you may want to restore your Windows font settings back to their defaults.

If you are wondering how to fix Windows 10 font problems, you are in the right place. Today, we will be looking into how to fix font issues on Windows 10.

First, we will check what the default font on Windows is. Second, we will show you how to change the default font on your system and what the consequences of that may be. Finally, we will give you two methods for restoring your Windows font settings to their defaults.

Let’s get started.

What is the default font for Windows?

The default font on Windows 10 is Segoe. It’s a pretty nice-looking font —but, of course, aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder. If you are not a fan of the Segoe font, you can easily change it. If you do, however, keep in mind that this will change the font on your whole system: it will affect your system’s icons, menus, title bar text, File Explorer, and more.

To check what font you are currently using as the default, do the following:

  1. On your keyboard, use the Win + I shortcut.
  2. This will launch the Settings window.
  3. Here, go to Personalization and select Fonts.
  4. At the top of the screen, you should see the official name of the font currently set as default.

Before making changes to your font settings in Windows, it is strongly advised that you back up your Windows Registry. This way, if anything goes wrong, you will be able to restore your Registry settings easily.

Here’s how to change the default fonts on Windows 10:

  1. Launch Run by pressing the Win and R buttons at the same time.
  2. Type “regedit” and press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Make sure you are using Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 for this.

  1. Navigate to File > Export…
  2. You will need to save the new Registry file somewhere on your hard drive.
  3. Launch Notepad.
  4. Copy the commands below and paste them into the new Notepad file:

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

“Segoe UI (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Black (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Black Italic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Historic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Light (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Light Italic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Semibold Italic (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Semilight (TrueType)”=””

“Segoe UI Semilight Italic (TrueType)”=””

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]

“Segoe UI”=”Verdana”

 In the last line, you will need to replace “Verdana” with the name of the font that you want to switch to. If you are not sure how the font is called, go to the Fonts folder (you can access it by searching for “fonts” in your Windows taskbar). Locate the font you want to use and note down its exact name. While experimenting with different fonts is definitely fun and can help you fully customize your experience, make sure you are not using fonts that can make your system unreadable (like Wingdings, which is too small) or hard to manage. Otherwise, you may have trouble navigating the interface and changing fonts again.

After you’ve changed the font name in the last line, go to File and click Save. Make sure that the file has the .reg extension. Other than that, you can give this file any name you want.

Next, double-click the Registry file that you have just created. You will be asked to allow the file to make changes to your system — agree and continue. Hold on for the confirmation that the changes have been made.

The final step will be to restart your PC to make sure all the new changes take effect.

Just don’t change the default font to something that can render your system completely unreadable.

How to change your Windows font back to default

Windows 10 features TrueType fonts and OpenType fonts installed out of the box. These files will have the TTF or OTF file extension. They also support scaling and look really good on modern displays.

OpenType is more flexible font software as it supports any writing script and comes with an advanced typographic “layout” feature that allows for the positioning and replacement of rendered glyphs.

There is a special section in the Settings app called Fonts — head to Personalization to find it. Here you can get access to all the new feature releases, like color fonts or variable fonts. This section has replaced the earlier Fonts Control Panel applet.

When you head to the dedicated Fonts page in Settings, you will be able to see a mini preview of each font family. These previews will give you a good idea of what each font will look like on your system and with the language you are using. If the said font comes with multi-color capabilities built into it, you will also see it in the preview.

Now, if you’ve explored new font customization features in Windows 10 and now want to go back to your default Windows font settings, here’s what you should do.

To restore the default font settings in Windows 10, do the following:

  1. First, head to the classic Control Panel app.
  2. Navigate to Control Panel\Appearance.
  3. Here, locate Personalization\Fonts.
  4. A folder will open, with all available fonts listed in alphabetical order.
  5. On the left, find the link that says “Font settings”.
  6. On the next page, press the button that says “Restore default font settings”.
  7. This will take your font settings to their originals — no matter how many changes you’ve made.

There is another way to restore your font settings to their defaults on a Windows 10 PC — you can do it via a simple Registry tweak.

How to change your Windows font back to default via the Registry

You can restore your font settings to their defaults using the method we’ve described above. However, you can also do it using the Registry. To make the changes, you will need Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00.

Note that while this is a rather simple tweak to make, it is still only recommended for users who are familiar with how the Registry works and have made similar changes before. Making a mistake while editing the Registry can lead to serious issues with your system — and it’s best to leave this method to more experienced users.

If you are an experienced Registry user, you can go ahead with the following steps:

  1. Open Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00.
  2. Create a REG file with the following contents:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Font Management]

“Auto Activation Mode”=dword:00000001

“InstallAsLink”=dword:00000000

“Inactive Fonts”=-

“Active Languages”=-

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Font Management\Auto Activation Languages]

  1. Save the file and double-click it to apply the changes.

If you don’t feel comfortable making Registry changes, you can find ready-made REG files for restoring your fonts on some Windows forums. In this case, you can simply download the file you need and double-click it to make the changes.

And there you have it. Above, we have covered how you can change fonts on Windows 10 and what you can do to restore the font settings back to their defaults. We hope this information has been helpful and you now have a better understanding of how fonts work on Windows.

Before you go, there is just one more thing we’d like to recommend. As you download files from the internet (for instance, the REG file we’ve suggested above), it is absolutely essential that you have proper security on board — this means you need anti-malware software that can detect even the newest and rarest threats. We recommend using Auslogics Anti-Malware. This program has been designed specifically for Windows and is able to timely detect almost any threat that could be affecting your system. Auslogics Anti-Malware is very easy to use and can be installed in just a few steps. Once on board, the software will run automatic checks of your system, focusing on malicious programs running in the background, cookies that could be trying to gather your personal data, suspicious startup items, Registry entries, and browser extensions, and more. You can also personalize the way the program works. You can choose to run a quick scan (which will look into the main folders on your PC), a deep scan (which will look into the deepest corners of your system) and a custom scam (in this case, you define what areas of your system should be inspected).

Using Auslogics Anti-Malware can keep your PC safe and make your overall experience smooth and efficient — especially when downloading data from the web.