Windows 7 Need to rename font file - what to do?

Exp HP

New Member
For reasons I won't bore you with, I need to make the file C:\Windows\Fonts\msgothic.ttc unavailable for a while, so I want to temporarily rename it to msgothic.ttc.old. Anybody who's tried to rename an installed font file in Win7 could probably guess what happened:

File Access Denied
You need permission to perform this action

You require permission from TrustedInstaller to make changes to this file

msgothic.ttc
Title: MS Gothic; MS PGothic; MS UI Gothic
Type: TrueType collection font file

Try Again | Cancel

Then I discovered the hidden "true administrator" account on Win7/Vista. As in, the one that's called Administrator and that works like on XP (as in, no UAC). I thought I was home free. But even the true Administrator does not have permission to delete or rename this file. Even an "elevated" command prompt in the Administrator account (not that elevating it should make a difference :p) does not have permission. Only TrustedInstaller does.

How can I rename the file?

One possibility I'm considering: I dualboot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10, and the latter has access to the filesystem of the former.
Do you think it would be safe to rename the file from Linux, or would the fact that Windows' system files were modified outside of Windows cause Windows to explode into an eternal mess of torture and BSODs?
 
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BUMP

I still haven't been able to do this yet. The C:\Windows\Fonts folder is an impenetrable fortress.

I'd really like to know if it's safe to rename the file from within Ubuntu. I keep thinking to myself, "well, it couldn't hurt to try. Oh wait, yes it could."
 
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Just looking at it logically, I would think that
1. If you create a system restore point
2. Backup the font folder
3. If it was me I would create a full image, but that's just me
If you use a second bootable operating system and simply rename the file, and the results were somehow catastrophic it would seem an easy fix, to then go back and reverse the renaming.
These are just my thoughts
 
I just decided to put my font where my mouth is and did it. Boot into my second OS Windows 2k8 r2 server, went into the Windows 7 fonts folder, deleted the MSGothic font pack and rebooted into Windows 7, haven't noticed anything bad going on currently but it's only been a few minutes and I haven't opened word or any other programs except ie8, so While Your Mileage May Vary, it would seem to be OK at least for me for now. Now I got to go back and put it back.
 
Thanks for trying it out. I feel a lot safer about it now. My main worry was the fact that the Windows folder probably has strange layers of security in certain areas and crazy stuff like virtual directories and lord knows what that would not be recognized nor honored by anything but Windows itself. In other words, I was afraid that the files in the Fonts folder were not normal files in any sense, and that I would screw things up were I to treat them as normal files.
Given the fact that Win7 didn't go bonkers when you did that, it probably means that there isn't any strange stuff going on with the Fonts folder, and I can edit it from outside the OS. Any issues that pop up afterwords will probably be due to the missing font file (which is what I'm trying to achieve, after all), not due to the fact that it was changed outside the Windows API.

But I might still create a disk image anyways. Just because I'm a giant worrywart.

When I do it, I'll post back to tell how it worked out.
 
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