Can I save my fonts?

[wendy88]

I am running Windows XP Professional and I am about to reinstall it. I would
very much like to know whether there is a way to save the fonts I have
installed now. I have 1000s of fonts in a folder, and over time I have
installed many of them for different projects and documents. There 498 files
in my Windows/fonts folder, but I do not know how many of those were
installed with Windows. I would like to have the same fonts installed after I
reinstall Windows, so that whenever I open an existing or old project, all
the necessary fonts are installed. I know that I could make a list of all my
installed fonts and then, after reinstallation, manually match this list
against go all the fonts I have in storage, but that will take hours of work.
Is there perhaps a registry key that I could backup to restore my fonts, or a
utility that automates the process?

 

[gsjutla]

Fonts are stored under %windir%\fonts folder. You can copy these fonts to an
alternate location. On teh target machine, onen the fonts control panel item
and use teh install menu to install the fonts on the target machine

 

[Robert]

I am running Windows XP Professional and I am about to reinstall it. I would
very much like to know whether there is a way to save the fonts I have
installed now. I have 1000s of fonts in a folder, and over time I have
installed many of them for different projects and documents. There 498 files
in my Windows/fonts folder, but I do not know how many of those were
installed with Windows. I would like to have the same fonts installed after I
reinstall Windows, so that whenever I open an existing or old project, all
the necessary fonts are installed. I know that I could make a list of all my
installed fonts and then, after reinstallation, manually match this list
against go all the fonts I have in storage, but that will take hours of work.
Is there perhaps a registry key that I could backup to restore my fonts, or a
utility that automates the process?

Hi Wendy,

I'm not really a computer tech guy but if I remember correctly XP
professional has a backup utility, however, if your going to reinstall
this might not be of much use. I would first ask the question why are
you re-installing? Do you have a virus or what exactly is the problem?
Perhaps you don't need to re-install. That would be the last step I
would take. Let everyone know exactly what type of computer you have,
and I assume you have DSL and and if you have any games, printers etc.
The more information you give the better the people on here are able
to help you. If, for example you have Norton, that could be part of
the problem. When I had it, it caused nothing but problems and is a
resource hog and I finally got rid of it and glad I did.

In regards to your question however, the only suggestion I would have
is to build or purchase a external hard drive so that you can have a
mirror copy of your computers hard drive 'just in case' or install a
separate hard drive in your computer. Then you can do something like
this:

http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin...nMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1

In fact, I just purchased a new hard drive and will be transferring
all my files and Operating System (OS) over to the new drive, then
I'll discard the old drive. After I've done this I plan to build a
external hard drive, by buying an enclsoure:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&name=External-Enclosures

then buy another new hard drive:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ebook&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1064401651619

and then add a PCI card so that my computer will be USB 2.0 compatible
(faster transfer speed)

http://www.directron.com/aud041.html

and then plan to use CasperXP for backups:

http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/


I'm sure others far more knowledgable will be able to help you better
than I but that's as far as my thinking takes me.

Hope it
helps,


Robert

 

[WaIIy]

I'm sure others far more knowledgable will be able to help you better
than I but that's as far as my thinking takes me.

Hope it
helps,


Robert

Hey Robert, you're getting pretty good.

 

[wendy88]

Thanks, so after I copy all my existing fonts, into the new Windows\fonts
folder, can I then install everything en masse, or do I need to install each
file individually?

 

[wendy88]

Thanks for the handy links, Robert. I find that there comes a time with a
Windows installation (I've never used a non-Microsoft OS) when things aren't
working as they used to and I just know that it's time to take the plunge and
start afresh.
I do have Norton SystemWorks - I know that it's a resource hog, but it has
kept me free from viruses and worms since I've had it (about 7 years) and I
do know how to use it, plus it has some useful utilities.
It's great that there are such big external hard drives available these
days. I need 350GB to backup all my files (my machine has 3 hard drives) -
it's on my shopping list, but will have to wait till some time in the new
year, after I've paid all the Christmas bills. However, I think it's a
slightly different issue - I feel that I would still need to reinstall
Windows from time to time for spring-cleaning purposes. After a while, bits
of the registry get corrupted and reinstalling applications just doesn't work
any more.

 

[Alan Edwards]

You can install en masse.

....Alan

 

[Robert]

Thanks for the handy links, Robert. I find that there comes a time with a
Windows installation (I've never used a non-Microsoft OS) when things aren't
working as they used to and I just know that it's time to take the plunge and
start afresh.
I do have Norton SystemWorks - I know that it's a resource hog, but it has
kept me free from viruses and worms since I've had it (about 7 years) and I
do know how to use it, plus it has some useful utilities.
It's great that there are such big external hard drives available these
days. I need 350GB to backup all my files (my machine has 3 hard drives) -
it's on my shopping list, but will have to wait till some time in the new
year, after I've paid all the Christmas bills. However, I think it's a
slightly different issue - I feel that I would still need to reinstall
Windows from time to time for spring-cleaning purposes. After a while, bits
of the registry get corrupted and reinstalling applications just doesn't work
any more.

As far as anti-virus etc is concerned I would seriously get rid of
Norton. In it's place I would recommned AVG:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

and for your firewall Comodo:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

and for malware removal Spybot and A-Squared:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

All of these are free and are excellent products.


Hope this
helps,

Robert

 

[Robert]

Hey Robert, you're getting pretty good.

Thanks, I'm trying to understand all of this as best I can.

Robert

 

[M.I.5¾]

I am running Windows XP Professional and I am about to reinstall it. I
would
very much like to know whether there is a way to save the fonts I have
installed now. I have 1000s of fonts in a folder, and over time I have
installed many of them for different projects and documents. There 498
files
in my Windows/fonts folder, but I do not know how many of those were
installed with Windows. I would like to have the same fonts installed
after I
reinstall Windows, so that whenever I open an existing or old project, all
the necessary fonts are installed. I know that I could make a list of all
my
installed fonts and then, after reinstallation, manually match this list
against go all the fonts I have in storage, but that will take hours of
work.
Is there perhaps a registry key that I could backup to restore my fonts,
or a
utility that automates the process?

You can just copy the fonts file to external media. You can then copy the
file to the right location in your new windows and it will find all the
fonts during boot up. The only wrinkle that the font installation routine
caters for is that it allows fonts to be installed with font file stored in
a different location. I regularly add and remove fonts without bothering
with the install font wizard.

You should be aware that Windows runs through the fonts folder everytime
that it boots and the more fonts that you have, slows down the boot process.
There are a number of decent font managers around that can rationalise the
process somewhat.