50

Is it possible to install fonts from the command prompt on Windows? If yes, what is the command?

I tried copy [fontname].ttf C:\Windows\Fonts\ and it said copying was complete, but I could neither find the said fonts in the Fonts folder nor find them in the font list of any program so that certainly didn't work. (Although I was able to delete the said fonts from the Fonts folder afterwards)

2

14 Answers 14

35

It's possible but you have to write a Windows shell script to do that. Copying alone won't install the font: you also need to register the font, e.g.

copy "FontName.ttf" "%WINDIR%\Fonts"
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "FontName (TrueType)" /t REG_SZ /d FontName.ttf /f

Alternatively you can the following lines of code to suit your needs; save it as a .vbs file and then execute it.

Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace("<Folder or Share Location>")
Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName("<TTF File Name>")
objFolderItem.InvokeVerb("Install")

Example:

Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace("C:\Windows\Font")
Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName("Myriad Pro.ttf")
objFolderItem.InvokeVerb("Install")

Yet another alternative is to install fonts "temporary", just for current user session. The idea is to run fontview.exe for each font, which makes it available for other Windows applications:

for /F "delims=;" %%a in ('dir C:\ExtraFonts /B /A-D-H-S /S') do fontview %%a

See the complete solution here.

3
  • Will you be so kind to extend your script to: (1) Automatically install all *.ttf and *.fon fonts from current directory (2) Use Const FONTS = &H14& as suggested here (sevenforums.com/general-discussion/…). I am not king on VBS :( Thanks in advance.
    – dma_k
    Aug 17, 2011 at 13:09
  • 2
    objFolderItem.InvokeVerb("Install") does not work on Windows Server 2012 R2 Nov 10, 2014 at 22:57
  • @GeneQ : Thecopyandreg adddoesn’t makes the font listed in programs in Windows® 10. Jul 7, 2016 at 13:34
28

In Powershell this can be as simple as:

$fonts = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14)
dir fonts/*.ttf | %{ $fonts.CopyHere($_.fullname) }
4
  • 7
    I would change second line with Get-ChildItem -Recurse -include *.ttf | % { $fonts.CopyHere($_.fullname) } Dec 7, 2016 at 23:18
  • 2
    Granted, Get-ChildItem is the Powershell way, I just hate the Powershell way (Unix shell affectionado here), and dir is just an alias for that; and if you want recursion, then the options you provided are the way to go. For the simple "just scan the files in this folder", my version is less verbose and more readable.
    – Guss
    Dec 8, 2016 at 9:51
  • 1
    This answer was the easiest for me, and worked the best. Thank you!
    – cjones26
    Nov 3, 2020 at 18:28
  • 2
    @Guss then write ls -Recurse -include *.ttf | % { $fonts.CopyHere($_.fullname) } 😜
    – ZJR
    Mar 25, 2023 at 2:40
7

Similar to GeneQ's solution, here is a version doing it for all .ttf files in the script's directory:

Set ofso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
SourceFolder = ofso.GetParentFolderName(Wscript.ScriptFullName)

Const FONTS = &H14&

Set objShell  = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set oSource   = objShell.Namespace(SourceFolder)
Set oWinFonts = objShell.Namespace(FONTS)

' Lame VBscript needs 4 f*ing lines instead of "if (/\.ttf$/i) " ...
Set rxTTF = New RegExp
rxTTF.IgnoreCase = True
rxTTF.Pattern = "\.ttf$"

FOR EACH FontFile IN oSource.Items()
    IF rxTTF.Test(FontFile.Path) THEN   
        oWinFonts.CopyHere FontFile.Path
    END IF
NEXT
2
  • You just saved my day :) My default Windows font got corrupted and this was the only way I could reinstall all Windows Default fonts. Thanks!!
    – Rima
    Nov 5, 2015 at 16:38
  • perfect! I used this in a vbs run by a bat file for a number of computers after a company re-brand. It installs the fonts, installs the email signature files for Outlook and sets the browser home page
    – Reece
    Nov 19, 2015 at 0:47
5

You can also use the FontReg utility to install fonts from a command prompt.

3
  • 1
    This didn't work for me on Windows 10 64bit.
    – djangofan
    Oct 4, 2015 at 17:30
  • 1
    @djangofan: Were you using an elevated command prompt? I haven't tried fontreg on Windows 10 yet, but I'd expect that to be required.
    – afrazier
    Oct 4, 2015 at 18:23
  • 1
    The problem was I was trying to install Mac fonts on my system (they don't have filename extensions). I got the windows .ttf font files and its all good now.
    – djangofan
    Oct 5, 2015 at 23:29
2

Create a script file called InstallFonts.vbs in my case I put it in C:\PortableApps\InstallFonts\ IN the below code replace "SomeUser" with the username of the person you want to be able to install fonts. Then make the Appropriate "install Fonts" folder on their desktop.

Set ofso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'SourceFolder = ofso.GetParentFolderName(Wscript.ScriptFullName)
SourceFolder = "C:\Users\SomeUser\Desktop\Install Fonts"


Const FONTS = &H14&

Set objShell  = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set oSource   = objShell.Namespace(SourceFolder)
Set oWinFonts = objShell.Namespace(FONTS)

' Lame VBscript needs 4 f*ing lines instead of "if (/\.ttf$/i) " ...
Set rxTTF = New RegExp
rxTTF.IgnoreCase = True
rxTTF.Pattern = "\.ttf$"

FOR EACH FontFile IN oSource.Items()
    IF rxTTF.Test(FontFile.Path) THEN   
        oWinFonts.CopyHere FontFile.Path
    END IF
NEXT

Now create a shortcut on their desktop that is as follows...

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator /savecred "wscript C:\PortableApps\InstallFonts\InstallFonts.vbs"

Note that I used "Administrator". I enabled it and assigned it a password. I suppose you could use any administrator account for this. First time you run the shortcut you will be prompted for the administrator password. Every time after it will just work.

If it does not prompt you for a password run the shortcut from a cmd prompt it should prompt you then.

I cannot promise you how secure this is as in if they could use it to run elevated code. However it is a solution.

1

Guss & EvgeniySharapov really is the easiest approach.

  1. Download fonts
  2. Unzip files
  3. Open Powershell and navigate to the target directory
  4. Execute code in target directory to recursively install fonts
$fonts = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14)
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -include *.ttf | % { $fonts.CopyHere($_.fullname) }
1

A colleague and I found a powershell solution that requires no admin rights, and does not show any prompts. You can use the name of the font-file to install and uninstall. This makes it especially useful for scripting.

I posted it over at stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/a/67903796/1635906

1

I created a simple powershell script for this purpose. similar to those mentioned above just run this script in a directory containing ttf or otf fonts, it will find them in any subdirecories as well automatically prompts the UAC dialog for elevated priveleges while installing fonts.

# install-fonts.ps1
$fonts = (New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace(0x14)

$here = $MyInvocation.PSScriptRoot

$font_files = Get-ChildItem -Path $here -Recurse | Where-Object {
    $_.Extension -ilike "*.otf" -or $_.Extension -ilike "*.ttf"
}
 

foreach($f in $font_files) {
    $fname = $f.Name
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "installing $fname..."
    $fonts.CopyHere($f.FullName)
}
0

As said earlier by GeneQ, this is how you proceed (I've tested it)

  1. Open a command line with administrator privileges
  2. Use the command:

    for /F "delims=;" %a in ('dir C:\FontsDir /B /A-D-H-S /S') do fontview
    %a
    

Where C:\FontsDir is the directory where your tff files are stored. Once executed "fontview" windows will be opened as much as the number of tff files inside "FontsDir" directory. You have just to click on "Install" button and there you are! your fonts are installed on you system

Hope it would help someone

2
  • why such a complex for command instead of (for example) for %a in (C:\FontsDir\*.*) do fontview "%a"?
    – Ale
    Jan 19, 2016 at 0:17
  • The command shows also hidden fonts
    – Sam Doxy
    Apr 6, 2016 at 12:17
0

I solved the task in this way:

suppose you have to install many fonts in subfolders with the following structure recursively:

\root_folder
    Install_fonts.cmd
    \font_folder_1
        font_1.ttf
        font_2.otf
    \font_folder_2
        font_3.ttf
        font_4.otf
    \font_folder_3
        font_5.ttf
        font_6.otf

To do that, I downloaded the FontReg.exe tool on my Desktop (change the path in the Install_fonts.cmd file if it is located somewhere else) and I used it in a Install_fonts.cmd batch script like the following, located in root_folder (change also its name in the Install_fonts.cmd file, if different):

@echo off
set back=%cd%
for /d %%i in (%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\root_folder\*) do (
cd "%%i"
echo current directory:
cd
start /wait %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\fontreg-2.1.3-redist\bin.x86-64\FontReg.exe /move
timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul
)
cd %back%
echo Process completed!
pause

So, you have to run Install_fonts.cmd into root_folder as administrator, to automate the fonts installation process.

Cheers

0

To supplement the first answer for Windows 10, you need to copy the fonts to C:\Windows\Fonts and then also add to the following windows registry location for EACH font you have.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

Ex. From first answer:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "FontName (TrueType)" /t REG_SZ /d FontName.ttf /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "FontName (TrueType)" /t REG_SZ /d FontName.ttf /f

Only adding to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts did not work for me.

Make sure to find the actual font name. You can find that out by manually clicking on each font or adding it manually to registry first to find out the actual name that gets added and then update your batch file.

1
  • Adding the commands to add the new fonts to the Windows Registry would seriously improve your answer.
    – zx485
    Jul 19, 2021 at 19:49
0

FontReg fixed the issue for me: http://code.kliu.org/misc/fontreg/

Command Line: FontReg.exe /copy

-1

You didn't list your Windows version, but I assume you're running Vista or 7. Copying to that directory requires administrative privileges. Try what you did again, but use an Elevated Command Prompt instad this time.

1
  • 4
    He said that the copy succeeded. If permissions were preventing him from successfully copying there, it would have told him that the copy failed, so this probably isn't the problem.
    – nhinkle
    Dec 21, 2010 at 21:33
-1

I spent a lot of time to find a way for installing font without restart. Finally I found this: ClickFont. It's an easy and exact solution.

ClickFont allows easy installation of TrueType, OpenType and PostScript fonts with just two mouse clicks, from anywhere in the system. All it takes is a right-click on a font or folder.

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