The whole Internet, the forums, chat rooms, Google groups, blogs are filled with one question: How do I install this xyz.ttf font without having administrator privileges? There seems to be no answer.
Well, not any more.
When you try to install a font without having proper permissions to the C:\Windows\Fonts directory, this is the error message you get:
The SKETCHY.TTF file is currently being used and cannot be replaced.
Wait until Windows is finished using the file, and then try again.
This one is a classic among all the ambiguous and disorienting error messages that Windows throws in our way. It says that the file is in use, but if you get this error you can be pretty sure that it is a permission issue.
How to Install Fonts in Windows as a Normal User?
Windows have made it extremely difficult for normal users to install fonts. This is because the C:\Windows\Fonts where all the Fonts live peacefully is writable only by Administrator. Either the administrator need to give you write permission to this folder (which will not be that feasible in a corporate environment) or you will have to read along this post till the end.
A good guy called Tsukasa have cooked up a small command line utility which can add and remove fonts to your font cache. This addition is however temporary, which last only till the system is rebooted. Therefore this utility need to be run each time you start your system. Looks like lot of work? We'll help you make it a one time business.
- Download RegisterFonts utility from here.
- Unzip it to a suitable location. Say, D:\myutils.
- Download all the fonts (the .ttf files) that you want to install into this location.
- Right click on RegisterFont.exe and select Create Shortcut.
- Right click on this shortcut and select Properties. Append the string
add font1.ttf font2.ttf to the Target field. Remember to replace font1, font2 etc with the name of the fonts that you have downloaded to this folder. In my case I have added two fonts Blazed.ttf and sketchy.ttf. My shortcut properties looks like:
- Drag this newly created (and edited) shortcut to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Startup folder, so that this gets executed each time the system is rebooted.
Once you run the shortcut, you can see that the fonts you added are available to you in all Windows applications like notepad and MS Word.
Graphic designers who experiment with a lot of fonts would also like to remove fonts at runtime. For this just take a command prompt, navigate to D:\myutils and run the command: RegisterFont.exe rem fontname.ttf.
Thanks Tsukasa | Download RegisterFont | Download Source
Thanks for the tip!
Btw, this does not only work for TrueType fonts (ttf) but for all font types Windows supports.
see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms534231(VS.85).aspx
Thank you so much. This advice was thorough and it worked. I also appreciated the Print Screen image, which helped me because I am a visual person. I couldn't place the shortcut in the Start folder since access is restricted in my public library, so I just ran the file from my flash drive, opened Microsoft Word and there were the files. I'm so excited. So hint:
If you get to step 6 and you can't place the shortcut in the Start folder just run it from the location you saved it and open your word document.
Whoo hoo!
@rjonesdesuka and @Anonymous,
I'm happy to know that it helped you. Keep reading.
Whenever I try and run the shortcut it says "application failed to initalise". What can I do to fix this?
Hi,
Having a couple of problems with this. First I can't save the changes when adding the quotation marks (") after '...\RegisterFont.exe' in the target.
So I took them out. But when running the file, I get the 'RegisterFont has encountered a problem and needs to close' error box, so no joy!
Any extra tips would be massively appreciated.
Thanks, Dan
Dan
Select Control Panel -> Fonts.
From File select Install Fonts.
Browse to the location where you have downloaded the font. Before clicking OK, make sure that the checkbox "Copy Fonts to Fonts Folder" is unchecked.
That should do it
Anoop you are an absolute hero! A million thankyous!
Dan
I also very much appreciated Anoop's advice. The strict acces restricitions on my current system came in the way of running the command line tool.
However, Anoop's advice saved me a lot of trouble! Thanks.
Thank you so much for this which, in conjunction with the software at PortableApps.com, I've regained most of the functionality I lost when our IT department switched us to Vista and restricted our priviledges.
Ok so i did everything that it said to however when i go to 'Properties' on the shortcut to it it says 'Target Location: RegisterFont' instead of 'Realease' and its not working.
Thank you VERY much for this... it makes my life a lot easier... With this set-up you don't even have to re-start Photoshop to re-collect fonts. Thank you!
@ Anonymous (11/24): The Target Location is the folder the shortcutted item resides in. You did it right. Mine also says 'RegisterFont' because I kept the original folder name when I unzipped it.
For me, simply "Installing Fonts..." and unchecking "Copy Fonts to Fonts Folder" (Anoop Engineer, 16.10) worked. Thank you very much to all!
Please help! I'm trying to install fonts on a computer which you guessed has admin settings. I went through your process to install the fonts but am running into some problems. If I do as shown then it runs in that DOS looking application but does not do anything. I was able to catch it with print screen to see the text and it looks like there's an error. I tried adding one " at the end before the add font but it wouldn't let me saying that was not a proper file name. I also tried going in and unchecking "save fonts to font folder" but that didn't help either... any suggestions!?
This step is confusing me what dose it mean?
Right click on this shortcut and select Properties. Append the string add font1.ttf font2.ttf to the Target field. Remember to replace font1, font2 etc with the name of the fonts that you have downloaded to this folder. In my case I have added two fonts Blazed.ttf and sketchy.ttf. My shortcut properties looks like:
There is no picture here
What dose apend string mean?
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