Allow Standard Users to Install Fonts

Problem:

The Windows font system has a lineage dating back to the single-user, pre-Internet days. Fonts are stored in a central folder under the Windows directory and therefore typically require administrator privileges on the computer to install or remove fonts. On multi-user systems, a user requiring the ability to install a font for use in a document may not have such privileges.

Solution:

A command-line program called regfont can be used to temporarily install a font from a standard user’s account. The user would then be able to use the font as normal, in documents and image editing software, until they remove it.

Procedure:

  1. Visit http://www.marshwiggle.net/regfont/
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, locate the most recently dated zip file, and download it by clicking on the down-pointing arrow on the right.
  3. Once downloaded, extract the zip using 7-zip or similar software.
  4. In the extracted files, enter the bin directory, then the subdirectory for your computer’s architecture (i.e. for 64-bit systems, go into the x86_64 subdirectory).
  5. This is the location of regfont.exe, the program you will run to install the font. You can copy this to any location you’d like; if you have a folder containing fonts you’d like to install, that might be the best place for it. Alternatively, place regfont.exe in one of the system’s PATH directories.
  6. Start a command prompt, navigate to the directory containing regfont.exe (or the font, if you’ve placed regfont.exe in the PATH). Type “regfont -a <filename of font>” or simply “regfont” to get a brief explanation of how to use the program.

Limitations:

Fonts installed in this manner will only be accessible to the user who installed them. To keep a font installed permanently and available to all users, it must be installed by an administrator.