How To Change Default Display Font In Windows 11

Default font Windows 11Default font Windows 11

Windows personalizations and customizations are now becoming a thing. Whether you have noticed it or not, changing your system’s default font is not an option.

The Windows 11 operating system allows you to change themes, backgrounds, color accents, customize the touch keyboard and much more. But what it lacks is the ability to change the display fonts of the operating system.

However, there is still a method to do so. In this post, we are going to teach you how to change your system’s fonts to any other font that you like.

Default Windows 11 Font

The font that you see by default in the Windows 11 operating system is known as “Segoe UI Variable.” It is derived from and is the newer version of Segoe, which uses the variable font technology.

Segoe UI Variable has been designed by specialized designers for Microsoft, which scales better on monitors with higher Dots Per Inch (DPI). This ensures that this font has higher readability on various types of display devices.

Microsoft To Launch Redesigned Wind...
Microsoft To Launch Redesigned Windows 11 Setup Experience

However, it may be possible that you will get bored of this font eventually and would like to change it to something more catchy, or more to your taste.

Customize Windows 11 Default Font

Let us now show you how to change the default Windows 11 font throughout your entire PC.

Windows allows you to use preinstalled font packages on your computer to configure them as the default OS font or download new font packages from the Microsoft Store. Either way, you must have the font package on your computer locally to make it the default font.

Furthermore, you must also have the font name as it is required in the process to change the default Windows font.

Find Font Name

Follow these steps to determine the font name you wish to configure as the default OS font.

  1. Navigate to the following:

    Settings app >> Personalization >> Fonts
  2. Here, choose the font that you want to set as the default Windows font and note down its name.

    Choose available font
    Choose available font

    Alternatively, if you do not like the font from the list, you can download a new one from the Microsoft Store. Simply click “Get more fonts in Microsoft Store.”

    Download fonts from Microsoft Store
    Download fonts from Microsoft Store

Once you have the font package on your PC and noted down the name, proceed to the next phase of the process.

Change Default Windows Font

It is now possible to apply that font to the whole operating system. Here is how:

Note: The following process involves manual changes to the Windows Registry. Misconfiguration of critical values in the system’s registry could be fatal for your operating system. Therefore, we insist that you create a system restore point before proceeding forward with the process.

  1. Open up Notepad on your computer and then paste the following script into it:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
    
    "Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
    
    "Segoe UI"="NewFont"
  2. In the last line of the script, replace NewFont with the font name you selected to configure as the new default font for the OS. Here is an example:

    Substitute new fonts name
    Substitute new font name
  3. Now you need to save this file as a Registry file. To do so, click File from the top menu, and then click Save as.

    Save notepad file
    Save notepad file
  4. From the Save as popup, select a location to save the file. Then, select “Save as type” All files and enter a name for the Registry file with a .reg extension. Once done, click Save.

    Save as Registry file
    Save as Registry file
  5. Now that the Registry file has been created, double-click it to execute it.

    Run Registry file
    Run Registry file
  6. If prompted for a UAC, click Yes.

    Confirm UAC
    Confirm UAC
  7. When asked for a confirmation, click Yes again.

    Confirm
    Confirm
  8. You will then be prompted to ensure that the changes have been successfully made. Click OK.

    Click Ok
    Click Ok
  9. Now restart your computer for the changes to take place.

Once the computer reboots, you will notice that the system fonts have been changed to the one you selected.

New default font applied
New default font applied

If you are not happy with this font or would like to change it, you can repeat the steps above and put in a new font name in place of NewFont in the script.

However, if you think the font is alright, but still have readability issues, you can just increase the font size.

How to Increase Font Size in Windows

Follow these steps to increase the default Windows font size:

Note: Changing the font size will also change the text size of all Windows native apps, such as File Explorer, Control Panel, Settings app, etc. However, this may not affect the font size of third-party applications.

  1. Navigate to the following:

    Settings app >> Accessibility >> Text size
  2. Here, move the slider under “Text size” to increase the size of the text to make it more readable. Once done, click Apply to save the changes.

    Adjust font size
    Adjust font size

You should now be better able to understand the new font without having to change it again.

How to Restore Windows Default Font

If at any moment you want to bring back the old Windows default font and size, it can be done easily using these steps:

  1. Open up Notepad on your computer and then paste the following script into it:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
    
    "Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
    
    "Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
    
    "Segoe UI"="Segoe UI Variable"
  2. Now save this file as a registry file. To do so, click File from the top menu, and then click Save as.

    Save notepad file 2
    Save notepad file
  3. From the Save as pop-up, select a location to save the file. Then, select “Save as type” All files and enter a name for the Registry file with a .reg extension. Once done, click Save.

    Save as Registry file 2
    Save as Registry file
  4. Now run the saved Registry file and follow through with the onscreen prompts.

  5. Once it is executed, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

As the computer reboots, you will notice that the old (default) font has been restored successfully.

Note: In case you changed the font size, you may have to revert it manually to bring back the old font size.

Closing Words

After playing around with the various fonts ourselves, we realize they make a difference when customizing your PC. However, many users do not even consider it, because Windows natively does not provide an option to do so.

That said, you can apply the trick above to change your operating system’s fonts to anything you want and make it more appealing.

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Subhan Zafar is an established IT professional with interests in Windows and Server infrastructure testing and research, and is currently working with Itechtics as a research consultant. He has studied Electrical Engineering and is also certified by Huawei (HCNA & HCNP Routing and Switching).

1 comment

  • Esther
    Esther

    Changing font in my system doesn’t work… I’m doing everything, the system says that it made the changes but after restart nothing is changed. Tried with different fonts and nothing.

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