Introduction

Removing unnecessary or damaged fonts will reduce the time it takes for Windows to boot and make your system more stable. When Printer's Apprentice uninstalls a font, it removes the font from memory, the Registry and will optionally copy or move the font to another drive or folder.

Uninstalling Fonts

To start uninstalling fonts, use the Installed Fonts tab to select the fonts you want to remove. You can select one or more fonts using the checkbox next to each font name in the list.

Then select Uninstall Fonts from the File menu. You can also click the Uninstall Fonts button on the Toolbar. The Uninstall Fonts dialog box will open and list the fonts to be removed.

   

The Uninstall Fonts dialog has two tabs. The "Fonts To Uninstall" tab lists the selected font names, the source font file, the file size and the entry that will be added to the Windows Registry. (The Fonts section of the Registry tells which fonts should be installed the next time Windows is restarted.) A summary of the uninstall operation is also displayed below the font list.

The Options tab lets you specify where the fonts will be copied to after they are are uninstalled. Each of the settings is described below.

Delete font files - Printer's Apprentice will delete the the font files after the fonts are uninstalled.

Copy font files to a folder - Printer's Apprentice will copy the fonts to another folder after the fonts are uninstalled. You can select the destination by clicking the Folder... button.

Move font files to a folder - Printer's Apprentice will move the fonts to another folder after the fonts are uninstalled. You can select the destination by clicking the Folder... button.

Leave fonts where they are - Printer's Apprentice not do anything with with the font files after they are uninstalled.

The Options tab also has checkboxes to "Create a log file" and "Show log file when finished". If Printer's Apprentice is having difficulty removing fonts, these may be used to help diagnose the problem. When the "Create log file" option is enabled, Printer's Apprentice will create a very detailed list of the actions taken to uninstall the fonts. This can then be sent to the software developer for analysis. The log files are stored in the c:\documents and settings\username\Application Data\Printer's Apprentice\log folder. You can browse this folder by selecting Printer's Apprentice Log Folder from the Help menu.

When you are satisfied with the options, click the Uninstall Fonts button. Printer's Apprentice will copy the font files if necessary and uninstall the fonts.

Behind the Scenes

After you click the Uninstall Fonts button, Printer's Apprentice runs through the steps needed to remove the font from Windows and other applications. The steps are essentially the same as those performed by the Windows Control Panel Fonts tool.

Here is what happens after you click the Uninstall Fonts buttons.

1. The font file is removed from Windows through a call to the Win32 API RemoveFontResource() function. Additionally, a WM_FONTCHANGE message is sent to other open applications to let them know that a font change occurred.
2. Printer's Apprentice removes the font to the Windows Registry. The Registry entries tell Windows what fonts should be installed the next time Windows boots up. The font lists are stored in the following sections:
   
   TrueType and OpenType Fonts
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts (shown below)
   
   Type One Fonts
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Type 1 Installer\Type 1 Fonts
    
   
   
   Each font is stored in a separate key. The "name" portion of the key stores the font name and the data portion stores the font file name. If the font file is located in the c:\windows\fonts folder, then the filename is stored without a path. If the font file is located in another folder, then the filename will contain the full path to the font file.
3. And finally, if either of the Copy or Move options are selected, then Printer's Apprentice copies the file to the destination folder and deletes the original if needed. There is, of course, code in place to confirm file overwrites, check for copy failure, etc.