How to modify the desktop font

Updated: 03/06/2020 by Reckoner Hope

Change the default Windows UI font.

To personalize your Windows reckoner, you may want to change the font of your desktop items, which is the default Windows UI font. This font, named Segoe UI, appears in window title bars, application menus, and other parts of the Windows GUI.

The following steps walk you through how to alter the default Windows UI font. To do so, you need to use a text editor, such as Notepad or Notepad++, to edit your Windows registry.

Note

When yous edit the Windows registry, you permanently change your Windows configuration. If you make a fault, it can be hard to undo information technology. Before editing your registry, you may want to create a system restore point. If something goes wrong, y'all can restore your system configuration to that restore betoken, which will disengage your changes.

  • How to back upwardly and restore the Windows registry.

How to modify the default Windows UI font

Follow these steps to change your default Windows UI font.

Choose a font

  1. Open up the Windows Control Console.
  2. If your Control Panel uses the Category view style, click the Appearance and Personalization pick, then click Fonts.
    If your Control Panel uses the Pocket-size icons or Large icons view mode, click the Fonts selection.
  3. Search through the fonts, and write downwardly the exact proper noun of the font y'all want to use.

Tip

Font names are case-sensitive. When writing downwardly the font name, make sure to capitalize each letter exactly equally information technology appears in the font name.

Tip

You only need the proper name of the font family unit, not the font type. So if the proper noun is listed as "Comic Sans MS Regular" or "Comic Sans MS Italic," y'all only need to write down Comic Sans MS.

Create a registry file

Create a text file containing the changes you want to make to the registry.

  1. Open Notepad or your preferred text editor program.
  2. Re-create and paste the following registry code to a new Notepad file.
Windows Registry Editor Version v.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Low-cal (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
            
              [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"="NEW FONT NAME"
  1. In the assuming text above, supersede NEW FONT Proper name with the name of the new font, such every bit "Lucinda Sans." ("NEW FONT NAME" is bold for example purposes merely.)
  2. In Notepad, click File, then click Save As.
  3. Select Desktop for where to save the new file.
  4. Type a name for the file in the File proper noun field, catastrophe the file proper name with a .reg file extension. For instance, yous could proper noun the file custom-desktop-font.reg. Make sure you type .reg later on the file name.
  5. In the Save as type drib-down list, select All Files.
  6. Click Save.

Creating a reg file

Use the edits contained in your registry file

Run the registry file you created, applying those changes to the registry.

  1. Become to your desktop.
  2. Double-click the new .reg file you created.
  3. In the User Account Command window, click Yes.

User Account Control

  1. In the Registry Editor window, click Yes.

Registry Editor

  1. Restart your computer.

Once the calculator restarts, the new font is used in the taskbar and utility software, such every bit File Explorer. In the example pictured here, we've chosen the "Fixedsys" font. Information technology's non very pretty, but it clearly shows which text looks unlike in File Explorer.

Custom Windows UI font in Explorer.

The new font besides appears in your application menus.

Custom Windows UI font in Photoshop.

How to undo your changes

If you lot don't similar the new font (or if something went incorrect), you tin restore your arrangement to the restore indicate, if yous created i.

  • How to restore Windows to an earlier copy.

If y'all didn't create a system restore bespeak, you can besides undo your changes by repeating steps iv-16 above, with one difference. In step 5, employ the following text in your registry file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"="segoeui.ttf"
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"="segoeuib.ttf"
"Segoe UI Assuming Italic (TrueType)"="segoiuiz.ttf"
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"="segoeuii.ttf"
"Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"="segoeuil.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"="seguisb.ttf"
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"="seguisym.ttf"
            
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"=""

And so follow the residual of the original steps. Later on y'all reboot your computer, the default Windows UI font is dorsum to normal.

Default Windows UI font.