Restore/Redownload Windows 7 Fonts?

[foggy]

Hi,

I was deleting a lot of the unused fonts from my system (and "hiding" others) and found that I (naturally) deleted a few that I did NOT want to delete. But I didn't realize this until some months after my 'purge.' I know a system restore is an option, but for me it's too much for too little. I don't want to risk losing things in a restore to recover less than half a dozen fonts (which I would like back).

In searching, I saw this thread at the official MS site where the OP basically took the words right out of my mouth! The problem is that the very unhelpful response from the official rep was "try 1001freefonts.com." Duh! The fonts that I (and likely the OP) are missing are NOT 'free.'

But since I'm in the same boat now as he was then, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask here. And, to use his own wording, "Is there no place where existing licensed OS users can go to download the font files and then install it themselves ?" I mean, if MS verifies proper/valid ownership of a Windows OS to do updates, they could surely allow for a re-downloading/installation of missing/corrupt/deleted fonts, right? :sarc:

So, is there a way or a place to reacquire missing (or even all) Windows 7 (or to be more precise, Word 2007) fonts without using a system restore?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Foggy

 

[cyclops]

Foggy, if you'd like I could post my fonts folder to Google Drive and provide you with a link

 

[mitchell65]

This might help you:
How to restore Windows 7 default fonts. - Microsoft Community

 

[foggy]

This might help you:
How to restore Windows 7 default fonts. - Microsoft Community

Thanks, mitchell, for that reply.

Unfortunately, it doesn't address my issue. The OP's problem has to do with many additional fonts that were installed and his/her concern about losing the Windows fonts upon removing all the additional ones. And most of the replies there were either more drastic than I wish to be (restore point, reinstall Windows, etc.) or were about manual procedures or downloadable programs that remove the fonts, leaving Windows fonts alone.

My problem, however, is about having some deleted Windows own fonts that I want to have back. I'd love to have an easy MS-endorsed download link to a program that would restore just the Windows 7 (and/or Office 2007) fonts, something a few of the respondents to the thread you linked to also wanted. But, strangely, there seems to be no such link.

But thanks again for the reply!

 

[foggy]

Foggy, if you'd like I could post my fonts folder to Google Drive and provide you with a link

That's a very generous offer!

But I don't want to put you to the trouble (yet). I've got a few other things I'm looking into. I'll let you know. (This is really something MS itself should be doing for its users, don't you think?)

 

[DavidE]

The OP PC might have a copy of the missing fonts in WINSXS.
If so, they could be could be copied (restored) from there.

I use File Locator Lite (free) for searching.
My screen print example shows results of what i find searching for a specific font (CALIBRILI.TTF).
I could use other search criteria to find other files.

 

[mitchell65]

This is getting a little confusing. First it is the Windows 7 fonts, now it seems to be the fonts installed with MS Office 2007 as well. We do not know what other programs the OP has installed that may have their own fonts. Some image editing programs install their own fonts automatically when you install the program. Perhaps if Foggy could produce a list of fonts he has missing we might be able to help further!

 

[foggy]

mitchell65,

Yes, my apologies for the confusion. Actually, it's a bit confusing to me, too.

To clarify: I predominantly use MS Outlook and Word 2007, so whatever fonts I'm familiar with on my Windows 7 Pro system are the ones I see in those Office program font menus. But when I did my purge of unwanted fonts a few months back I did so by manually deleting them from the C:\\Windows\Fonts folder. Since I myself had never added fonts, I had assumed (wrongly) that whatever fonts were in that folder were simply the default fonts supplied by the Windows operating system. But upon checking, it seems that Baskerville Old Face, Californian FB, Goudy Old Style, and some others are found in/supplied by Office 2007 but not part of Windows 7 itself.

Well, now knowing that I was missing fonts from two sources (Windows 7 and Office 2007), I downloaded the MS PowerPoint Viewer 2007 after (again) reading through the message board link you provided in your first reply to me. Someone there said doing so would restore missing Windows fonts, since that program comes with them. Well, some of my desired fonts (e.g. Constantia) which were part of Windows 7 fonts list were, indeed, restored! So, that part's delightfully solved. (Thanks again for that link!)

It would seem -- after having unnecessarily introduced confusion into this whole situation of mine -- that now I'm really looking for a way to restore deleted Office 2007 fonts, a problem which undoubtedly does not have as easy a solution.

If worse comes to worst, I can live with the fonts I have that were restored already.


DavidE,

Thanks for the link. I did a search on my own (based on your screenshot) and later also downloaded your suggested program. It didn't find any of the Office 2007 fonts I'm looking for, but it did help me confirm that some of the Windows fonts that I was missing have been restored by the PowerPoint 2007 download mentioned above. But I guess the Office 2007 ones I deleted are truly gone.



General comment: I checked -- my system restore points only go back a few weeks, but I deleted these fonts back in July/August or so, so that wouldn't help me anyway. Oh, well.

 

[cyclops]

Foggy, I am not sure if this will work, but if you want to try I am willing to work with you.
I have Office 2003 running on Windows 7 Ultimate. Fonts may or may not be compatible, but I think a font, is a font, is a font.
Here are screens of all of the fonts on my system. Make a list of what you need and I could find and put them into a folder on my Google Drive online storage. Then I could post a link to that on here for you to fetch them from.





Let me know if you wish to proceed.

 

[foggy]

Thanks again for your generosity, cyclops!

To be honest, I'd be happy just getting back some of the serifs:

Baskerville Old Face Regular
Bell MT
Californian FB
Goudy Old Style

Incidentally, you have some coveted serif fonts on your list:

Adobe Caslon Pro
Adobe Garamond Pro
Minion Pro

They're obviously not Windows 7 or Office 2007 fonts. They're premium fonts, AFAIK. Did you buy them or do they come with some (free or premium) software you have? For example, do they come with Adobe Reader or another Adobe product? (I use FF's built in .pdf reader or SumatraPDF and don't have Adobe myself. But I could download Adobe Reader if I knew it brought some nice fonts along with it.)

Anyway, thanks for all your assistance!

 

[cyclops]

I will gladly set up the folder to share with you any of the listed fonts. The coveted serif fonts are associated with Adobe CS4 Master Collection. Would you like me to include them in the share folder? You could try to see if they'll work on your system and if they do that's great. Shall I proceed to do this?

 

[Barman58]

Adobe CS4 Master Collection is a copyrighted commercial suite and "sharing" of part or all of the contents of the suite would be piracy

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