How to Delete Undeletable Font?

Community
1

Ok, a weird title but bear with me.

Sometimes when I try to run a program that uses Java I receive an assertion error that I eventually figured out has to do with a corrupt font(s). I’ve read that I should go in to my Fonts folder and remove all of the fonts that don’t have a green/black O or a red A as an icon. I tried doing this but I have come across a few fonts that just wont budge.

There are 9 fonts and their names are rather unordinary:

Batang & BatangChe & Gungsuh & GungsuhChe
Gulim & GulimChe & Dotum & DotumChe
Meiryo & Meiryo Italic
Meiryo Bold & Meiryo Bold Italic
MingLiU & PMingLiU & MingLiU_HKSCS
MingLiU-ExtB& PMingLiU-ExtB & MingLiU-…
MS Gothic & MS PGothic & MS UI Gothic
MS Mincho & MS PMincho
SimSun & NSimSun

When you view the fonts in the folder that is how they are displayed, however their real file names are as follows in order as I posted:

batang.ttc
gulim.ttc
meiryo.ttc
meiryob.ttc
mingliu.ttc
mingliub.ttc
msgothic.ttc
msmincho.ttc
simsun.ttc

So I am not sure why they are being displayed differently then their real file names. Anyways, when I try to delete any of the fonts I receive a Destination Folder Access Denied error.

I have read around earlier today that you receive this because you aren’t set as the Administrator which I am set as, so that point doesn’t matter. When I go and try to change the permissions on the files there is a Username TrustedInstaller that has full permissions for the files. I cannot change the permissions of that username and I cannot change permissions of SYSTEM/Administrator/Users accounts to be able to delete the files.

I tried booting into safe mode and deleting the files as well but no luck there. The .ttc extension stands for TrueType Collection and the files range in anywhere from 7.45-32.2MB and seem to be a container for numerous fonts. I am almost positive that these files are creating the assertion error.

Does anybody know how to delete these files? When I try to move them it only copies the file. Anybody know what to do other then a reformat? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

P.S. I have gone through and checked every font in the folder opening and closing them one by one to see if there were any invalid files, none existed. I had also read that the error can sometimes be caused by a font in the Fonts listed as a shortcut instead of an actual file but no shortcuts exist.

2

Maybe MoveOnBoot can help you

3

Thanks! Will have to try it out, hopefully it will work.

4

Tried moving and deleting a file with no luck.

Anybody else have any other suggestions/recommendations/fixes?

Or does anybody know a workaround with Java? Downgrade to a later version? I had this problem a few months ago but forgot how I fixed it unfortunately.

Running Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 if it means anything.

5

http://tinyurl.com/5c754w

should get you sorted out. :slight_smile:

6

Either of these freeware apps should work:

7

Thanks for the tips all, I got the fonts deleted finally, but facing another problem right now that I came across that may be the actual problem. Once I figure it out I will update this thread.

8

Ok, after looking into it more, I have found that there are 689 font files inside of my Fonts folder.

But when I go to view the Fonts inside of the folder I can only see 158 files. Through a Windows search I am able to find the remaining font files hidden under the extension .fon but I cannot view them in the Fonts folder no matter what. Have tried setting the folder settings to view all system files including protected ones and nothing still. This is what has lead me to believe is the real problem and that there is a messed up font as one of the .fon files or possibly even all of them.

Has anybody had any experience with this? Or know how to view/delete the .fon files?

9

Try Total Commander

I can see a bunch of hidden .fon files in my c:\windows\fonts

10

Thanks again Scallio for the suggetions. I tried out that software and could see the files and was able to delete most of them, a few I couldn’t though, maybe they were in use.

I am still getting the error though and going to try just a few more things with Java itself. Downgrading to different versions, trying out the 32bit version versus the 64bit and if none of that works, I think it will just be time for a re-install of Vista.

Thank you all for your help, it is very much appreciated :slight_smile: