Help me hack in to my Font folder!

January 24, 2008 5:02 PM

Can I install (and use) a TrueType font on my computer at work without having access to the C:/WINDOWS/Fonts folder?

I need to install a font on my computer, but I need administrative rights to access like, anything but the desktop and the My Documents folder. It is so annoying. But anyway, is there some way I can install a font and use it with such limited access without doing anything that might get me in trouble? The IT just is not feeling me, so I don't want to ask him to let me in.

posted by foxinthesnow to technology (9 comments total)

Can you get at the Fonts from the Control Panel?
posted by trinity8-director at 5:03 PM on January 24, 2008

No. I thought it would work, but I still get the administrative block.
posted by foxinthesnow at 5:13 PM on January 24, 2008

The last time I tried (Win98 days, I believe), the following worked:

Double-click the .TTF file, and it will open in preview mode. Then launch your application (must be launched while TTF preview is active), and the font should be available for use.
posted by Perplexer at 5:15 PM on January 24, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I should note that the .TTF does not need to be in any specific location or folder for this to work.
posted by Perplexer at 5:16 PM on January 24, 2008

Wow! I can't believe that works, but it does! I just checked. You are awesome, Perplexer!

Thank you!
posted by foxinthesnow at 5:20 PM on January 24, 2008

This might work.

Go into the Control Panel, and start the User Accounts applet. Create a local user (i.e., just for your local machine, not on the domain). Give that new user local admin priviledges. Log off, then log on to the computer (not the domain) using the new account. Then, install the font. It should be available when you log back on as your usual self.
posted by trinity8-director at 5:25 PM on January 24, 2008

I will give that a try tomorrow, trinity8-director. Thanks!
posted by foxinthesnow at 5:30 PM on January 24, 2008

A limited user can't make an administrator user, domain or not.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:51 PM on January 24, 2008

Be aware that if you use a nonstandard (as in, not installed by the rest of your org) font in Word (or Microsoft Office products generally, or most other word processors for that matter), and then make your Word documents available to your colleagues, they won't render properly. You will still be able to make PDF's that look right.

If there's a legitimate business reason for you needing this extra font, going through channels and having it done by IT is definitely the path of least future trouble.

If you want to do it yourself on the sly, one method that should work is to boot your PC using an Ubuntu live CD, and use that to copy the font files into the fonts folder. Ubuntu gives you full read/write access to NTFS file systems but does not respect any of NTFS's access controls.
posted by flabdablet at 8:15 PM on January 24, 2008