Command window missing default 8x12 font

remote-desktop windows-server-2008-r2 font command-line-interface

7,588

Solution 1

Interesting issue - this answer is just an attempt to encircle it rather than an immediate solution:

Section How Windows NT Matches Fonts within Chapter 8 - Fonts of the MS Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Resource Guide qualifies the Terminal font in question as Raster, fixed, display-dependent size, other than for example the MS Sans Serif font, which is qualified as Raster, proportional, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24 (not to speak of the TrueType fonts, which are all scalable of course).

Unfortunately I have been unable to surface any particular font matching algorithm, still a quote from the almost ancient Windows 95 Printing and Fonts: The Basics might add to the picture, see section Fonts Provided for Compatibility:

The user interface in Windows 95 relies on TrueType fonts. However, three fonts — System, Fixed, and OEM (or Terminal) — are installed to support display and output devices to support other applications that may require these fonts. Each of these fonts supports two display types — 8514/a (1024x768) resolution and VGA (640x480) resolution.

Consequently I suspect the particular font size missing due to non matching characteristics of your remote desktop clients display capabilities, though admittedly this would be quite surprising giving all the other width/height pixel tuples available. Still the fact that the font is missing in PowerShell console too (as per comments to r0cas answer) would back this being a system wide font matching effect rather than an issue of any particular program like cmd.exe.

What should I do to get this font back in the list?

In case Windows font matching would indeed be causing this as suspected above, you might simply be unable to solve this. Eventually changing your clients display resolution and/or DPI settings could make a difference here though; whether this would be an option at all depends on your particular environment and requirements of course.

Solution 2

Radek, Your solution don't resolve this problem. If your language is different from the U.S. you don't have diacritics in console aplications after change system locale.

We had the same problem with missing raster fonts 8x12 in Windows 2008 Terminal Server sessions. I resolve this after install converted raster fonts to unicode Trutype fonts from this site: http://www.yohng.com/software/terminalvector.html

Enjoy!

Solution 3

Adding property Terminal with value app852.fon to registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts helped me.

7,588

Robert Koritnik

Remote web developer, consultant, enthusiast, geek.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Robert Koritnik almost 2 years
Installation:
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Remote Desktop Service role
When I logon locally my command window (cmd.exe) displays with default font that is 8x12. But when I logon remotely and open command window, it opens with the smallest possible font selection. Opening window properties and setting font size, the default 8x12 font is missing from the list.

What should I do to get this font back in the list?

Following screenshots show settings when logged on locally and remotely. Local machine is not Aero capable, but remotely I can have Aero environment. I've also tried setting it to basic, but there was no change.

Local logon

Remote logon
- Admin almost 15 years
  
  What version of Remote Desktop Connection is in use? Which display resolutions and DPI settings are in use? Have you tried this from another remote system already? See my answer for why this might be relevant (serverfault.com/questions/56093/…).
- Admin about 9 years
  
  This started around Vista and happens directly on the console too. Last time I went around in a computer store opening CMD on the displayed computers (mostly laptops) and on about half of them this problem happened. So it is a pretty common problem and apparently no-one knows what causes it or how to solve it...
- Admin about 9 years
  
  As explained in this question this happens depending on time, not locale settings. In short: If the current user session isn’t the first session started after a cold boot, the console windows use very tiny 4x6 terminal font
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

no change. 8x12 still missing.
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

no change... even though I hopped for...
Dave FN almost 15 years

Is it the same problem with powershell?
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

My question already states that this is only a problem when logging on remotely. Local logon displays thing just fine.
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

yes. the same in powershell window.
Roy Rico almost 15 years

i meant the font could be missing on the machine you are logging in from. I said this in the first line of my answer
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

Why would my Remote session use any resources (like fonts) from a machine I'm connecting to. Imagine connecting to a non-win machine. This just wouldn't work. No. My machine has 8×12 raster font.
Roy Rico almost 15 years

I thought remote desktop was different than VNC, in that, instead of sending an image of your desktop across the wire, it sent drawing commands (example: open window 600x400 pixels, use this font, draw this text). That's why it is able to operate much more efficiently than VNC. This is why I mentioned this. Sorry if that's not the case.
Steffen Opel almost 15 years

I'd be very interested why this has been voted down: it does not provide an immediate solution but I specifically mention this upfront; it may not be on the right track at all, but then stating what's wrong should be easy, in case I'd happily delete the answer to remove the noise.
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

you've gone deep into this problem. thank you. +1 from me to even it out.
Robert Koritnik almost 15 years

ok. valid argument.
Admin over 11 years

This will break the diacritic marks in most languages.