Windows 10: Can't preview any font in Windows 10 recent install

Hi,

I have this horrible problem, whenever I double click on a ttf or otf font file (not installed one) I get the error "...is not a valid font file".

I have read around these forums and inet in general, and people is solving this activating Windows Firewall or updating the user account with administrator rights. Neither work in my case because my account is already administrator, and windows Firewall is enabled (and Norton too).

On the other hand my case is somewhat different to other's people's: I can install them by right clicking on the file and choosing install. People seems to get my same error and also an install error when they try. But not in my case, I can install them but I can't preview them.

I have tried to disable Norton, Zemana, HitmanPro Alert, making an entry in Norton Firewall for fontview to allow any connection, I have performed a clean boot (disabling all non-Microsoft services and all startup items), reassign fontview to the fonts extensions after changing it to another program, tried "sfc /scannow", but no luck. I have changed in registry the path from %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\... to absolute path C:\Windows\System32\... too, and then reverted, no luck in any case...

I simply can't reinstall Windows 10 and repeat all the current software installation and configuration, I have lost already 3 weeks doing that. I can't simply afford another lost month or so.

So I am kind of desperate, as I need to check fonts quickly as I work in PS, and although I have a Font manager installed (which I use when I need) it is not a replacement for the quick preview of Windows.

Please, could you help me? I don't know where or what more to look for.

:)

 

How to disassociate fonts from Windows Font viewer

Hi, Mary EllenWilliams

Are you trying to preview the fonts using the Windows font viewer, or using something else? Were you able to preview the same font on Windows 10 before by double clicking on the font file? Does the issue happen with any font file or just certain ones?

 

(Fonts Not Displaying) New Dell LapTop With Windows 10

Thanks for your help,

I just recently synced my font folder from Windows 7 on my old laptop to my Window 10 font folder on my new laptop. I just used a drag and drop option on my sync app. I see the files in the font folder on the sync app I use on my new laptop; however the
files are not showing up in my applications on windows 10 nor in my font preview of the font folder in other searches on my computer. Is this a common problem among users? Any suggestions?

 

Hi, you could try this
Default File Associations - Restore in Windows 8
- search for ttf and use the reg file.

The equivalent document in this forum does not contain ttf, unfortunately.

Recommend- back up your registry/ export the existing keys first.

Also here's my [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ttffile] (attached) from Win 10
- note, there are a couple more keys in the one in the tutorial, but the preview association is in the attached.

 

Thanks! I have just tested this (registry backup done) but it has not solved the problem, I get the same error when I double-click it...*Sad

Tested both, the win8 and your win10 reg files (restart after each test), but no luck.

 

What do you see when you double click ttf here?





Can you use this to re-associate it?

Do you have a system restore point or disk image created before this happened?

 

Yes I see the same as you. This is the method I used for re-associate (before coming here to ask for help):





I have restore points and backup images of the system but I recall that I saw this problem several weeks ago...but as I have been in a rush to install and configure some programs I left the font problem to be solved later, now if I restore a system image, I would lose too much work/time...(and I mean, really too much)

I guess it is my fault, for not thinking that Windows is so fragile that any problem could become impossible to solve afterwards except for a full reinstall or almost, anyway this is the situation now, I hope (!) it will be possible to fix without reinstall.

It seems that the association is ok, and that fontview.exe is ok too (at least sfc /scannow did not found any problem), so where could be the problem? Norton blocking it? I have disabled everything (Firewall, Auto-Protect), should I totally uninstall Norton? I have UAC disabled (I tested to set it to some level of protection, apply and then disable another time, just to test, but no luck...)

 

Hi, try this free utility and see if it shows the same as I have. (I expect it will given the above).




If you right click on a font file, do you have Preview at the top of the context menu?

Finally, what happens if you boot to Safe Mode and double click on a font file?

 

This is what it shows:





Yes, I know that fontview has to be launched with an argument. I do not try to run it directly, I just double-click the font file.

This is what shows a right click ("Imprimir" means "Print" in spanish):





I did boot into Safe Mode and the result of double-clicking on the ttf is the same than in normal boot (error, "...not a valid font file")

 

Hi, I have Preview above Print, so there's something missing in your registry.




Try that (free, old...)

So it's not sthg installed interfering (Safe Mode).

My comment about not being able to run fontview.exe directly was more an observation. Even running it from the Run box with a ttf file as argument fails.

 

I downloaded and installed, but when launched it shows a progress bar and it stops telling this:





I tried also to run it with Windows 95 compatibility mode, but it says the same.

Excuse me. I'm sorry *Redface

 

When I go to the referred registry key and click on it, the registry says this:





The message says something like this:

"{03223D4D-1B28-4325-9A96-9C5A4C8EA8BC} could not be opened.
An error prevents opening the key.
Details: The system can't find the specified file"

Note: the other similar keys say the same if I click on them. I don't know if this is normal.

 

Hmm... hard to tell whether that's related to your basic problem, or something else. It's definitely not what I'd expect.
And we are fairly sure something in your registry isn't correct.

Here's what I suggest.
Download and run Tweaking.com's free cautious repair tool.
Run it, observing the initial stages which include creating a registry backup and restore point.

Run repair 01 (registry permissions).

Now download and run Ccleaner.
Click Registry, and select a couple of items. (We don't want to do lots of things, just see if it picks up these keys).
E.g. try Fonts, then Application paths, for example.
For each one you select Scan for Issues
Don't bother about things that don't seem relevant- leave well alone.
See if you can find these keys, then fix the problem for those only.

Now it depends what's listed. It could be a lot, and this may not prove feasible.
I'd just prefer to change the minimum.

 

I did as described, performed the Tweaking.com Windows Cleaner only for 01 (registry permissions, I did twice: one-reboot-one, always in safe mode), then I used CCleaner for these points but it only found one entry which made reference to a folder with some data I had in Desktop which I deleted yesterday.

ContextEdit keeps giving the same error.

Tweaking.com Windows Cleaner, during the initial stages, in the second one (Pre-Scan, which is optional) found some errors on 'Reparse Points' (I don't know what it is, neither if it is related to this problem, so I did not repair them yet).

 

Ok, continue with Ccleaner registry cleaning, selecting more options- I suggest 2 or 3 at a time to limit the number of results, as you feel.
Or you could just select all the rest and see what happens. Sometimes there can be hundreds of results listed.

I would accept Tweaking.com Repair Tools recommendations.