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    Uh oh! Vista is loading 283MB of fonts on startup!

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by I♥RAM, Sep 13, 2008.

  1. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    Just looked at my default fonts in the control panel, theres 197 fonts worth ~300MB that Vista has to load.

    Is there a program that will strip this down to bare bones of only which fonts are needed for the system (Times, verdana, arial, etc)? I'd delete them manually but Im afraid something might mess up.

    I think this will improve ready-up time a bit.
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 13, 2008
    #1
  2. McGrady

    McGrady Notebook Virtuoso

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    You do it manually. ;o
    Just make sure you back up your fonts.
     
    McGrady, Sep 13, 2008
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  3. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    What makes you think they're all being loaded at startup (rather than on demand)?
     
    swarmer, Sep 13, 2008
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  4. McGrady

    McGrady Notebook Virtuoso

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    I believe they are loaded on startup. Not on demand.
     
    McGrady, Sep 13, 2008
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  5. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Given the speed of current hard drives, even if it is loading ALL the fonts at boot (which I don't think it is) you'd only get about a 4 second decrease of boot time.
     
    Greg, Sep 13, 2008
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  6. McGrady

    McGrady Notebook Virtuoso

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    4 seconds is alot. I'll try and find the site that tells you which ones you need to keep.
     
    McGrady, Sep 13, 2008
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  7. Dook

    Dook Notebook Virtuoso

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    Right now, I have 672 fonts and don't notice any decreased boot performance over the factory installed fonts.
     
    Dook, Sep 13, 2008
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  8. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    Are they all in your windows fonts folder?

    Also, there's some fonts that are over 30MB big, and a lot of them which Windows says I need permission to delete <_<
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 13, 2008
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  9. Dook

    Dook Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeap. All in the Windows\Fonts folder.
     
    Dook, Sep 13, 2008
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  10. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    I dont think fonts are slowing me down, I guess I'll ignore it. Just thought I could shave off 3-5 seconds with them off.
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 13, 2008
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  11. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    Even if you don't mind the 4 seconds, if it's eating up 300 MB of RAM, that's a lot. Which is mainly why I find it rather hard to believe that it would load all the fonts at bootup.

    Unless there's evidence that it loads that stuff into RAM even when it's not used, I wouldn't worry about it.
     
    swarmer, Sep 13, 2008
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  12. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    Even if true, if you have 2GB of memory, do the math. What percentage of it is this?
     
    AKAJohnDoe, Sep 13, 2008
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  13. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    I dont think its loading them all at startup but rather the windows ones only at startup and then the rest on demand.
     
    nizzy1115, Sep 13, 2008
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  14. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    A few hundred MB here and there and pretty soon it adds up to real memory. ;)

    Seriously, my Vista tends to idle at around 1 GB of ram usage... so if it were using over 1/4 of that just for the fonts, I'd consider it a lot. (Of course I think that's nonsense.)
     
    swarmer, Sep 13, 2008
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  15. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    I think that any OS worth it's salt could manage, at the very least on a MRU algorithm, the constant resource known as memory.
     
    AKAJohnDoe, Sep 13, 2008
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  16. strjms72

    strjms72 Notebook Enthusiast

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    your computer business must be really urgent if you need those 4 seconds that bad :)
     
    strjms72, Sep 16, 2008
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  17. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    It is very urgent :)
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 16, 2008
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  18. JesterX

    JesterX Notebook Consultant

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    If you dont want the Vista to pre-cache/load frequently used programs and its associated files, disable Superfetch. Anything that superfetch loads is not considered used RAM, its cache, which can be dumped instantly when programs need the memory.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperFetch#SuperFetch
     
    JesterX, Sep 16, 2008
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  19. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    Just wondering if all fonts load on startup, not trying to disable superfetch...
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 16, 2008
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  20. dkwhite

    dkwhite Notebook Deity

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    Don't delete them, just move them to another folder outside of the fonts system folder if possible. That way you have them at a later date if you need them.
     
    dkwhite, Sep 17, 2008
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  21. qhn

    qhn Notebook User

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    This is not the issue pertaining only to Vista, but to all windows version. You can use this official guide to "trim" down the amount of loaded fonts

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314960

    I personally do not believe that you'd gain any loading times with this.

    cheers ...
     
    qhn, Sep 17, 2008
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  22. I♥RAM

    I♥RAM Notebook Deity

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    Exactly what I did :D

    Did not notice any faster startup time :D
     
    I♥RAM, Sep 17, 2008
    #22