Overview
When you upgrade from the Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 operating system to Windows 10, certain fonts are no longer available by default post-upgrade. To reduce the operating system footprint, improve performance, and optimize disk space usage, we moved many of the fonts that were previously shipped with prior versions of Windows to the optional features of Windows 10. If you install a fresh instance of Windows 10, or upgrade an older version of Windows to Windows 10, these optional features are not enabled by default. As a result, these fonts appear to be missing from the system.
If you have documents created using the missing fonts, these documents might display differently on Windows 10.
For example, if you have an English (or French, German, or Spanish) version of Windows 10 installed, you might notice that fonts such as the following are appear to be missing:
- MS Mincho
- Meiryo
- Narkism/Batang
- BatangChe
- Dotum
- DotumChe
- Gulim
- GulimChe
- Gungsuh
- GungsuhChe
If you want to use these fonts, you can enable the optional feature to add these back to your system. Be aware that this is a permanent change in behavior for Windows 10, and it will remain this way in future releases.
For a full list of Fonts included in optional font features, click to visit Microsoft's article on the topic
Directions
Install optional fonts manually without changing language settings:
If you want to use fonts in an optional feature but don't need to search web pages, edit documents, or use apps in the associated language, you can install the optional font features manually without changing your language settings.
For example, here are the steps to install the fonts associated with the Japanese language without adding the Japanese language itself to your language preferences:
- Click the Start button.
- In Settings, click System.
- Click Apps & features.
- Click on the link, Manage optional features.
- If "Japanese Supplemental Fonts" is not listed among the installed features, click on the "+" icon next to Add a feature.
- Scroll to find "Japanese Supplemental Fonts". Click on that item, then click on Install.
- Click on the back arrow in the upper corner of the window.
You should see the Japanese feature in the list as installed or in the process of being installed.
After installing optional font features, the fonts should appear in the Fonts control panel and in font-picker lists. Some apps might not detect the change until the app is re-started. If you still don't see some of the fonts, sign out and sign back in. A reboot should not be required.
Installing language-associated features via language settings:
If you want to use the fonts from the optional feature and you know that you will want to view Web pages, edit documents, or use apps in the language associated with that feature, add that language into your user profile. You do this the Settings app.
For example, here are the steps to install the fonts associated with the Hebrew language:
- Click Start > Settings.
- In Settings, click Time & language, and then click Region & language.
- If Hebrew is not included in the list of languages, click the plus sign (+) to add a language.
- Find Hebrew, and then click it to add it to your language list.
Once you have added Hebrew to your language list, then the optional Hebrew font feature and other optional features for Hebrew language support are installed. This should only take a few minutes.