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What has caused some Windows 11 PC's to move to Arial version 7.01, others remain on version 7.0?

Anonymous
2023-03-19T15:16:36+00:00

Strange question here. On our Windows 11 computers (all same 22H2 version of Windows 11, including the March update), some have Arial font version 7.01 others are still on 7.0. This creates a problem in programs that embed fonts (generally, graphics design apps), because every time that app opens a file with the other font, it asks for confirmation on the font substitution. This is not a font we use by intent, but it's a default for some things, and so it's set in many legacy files and even some new ones.

We have NO idea what could have caused some systems, running all the same software as others (at least as far as we can tell, but always possible we're missing something) to have different versions of this Windows-included font. Because we don't know the source of the change, we're not sure if we should just copy the Arial font files from some computers to others to force them all on the same version. We're worried that could cause other problems.

Any ideas:

  1. What might have installed or "upgraded" version 7.0 to 7.01 of the Arial font?
  2. Are there any real differences between the two versions? (we don't see any but didn't look too hard)
  3. Is it safe from a technical perspective to just copy font files between Windows computers (meaning assume no legal issues with font licensing)?
  4. If you know anything about 7.0 and 7.01, which should we keep? Should we just assume 7.01 is "better" than 7.0 and move everything to 7.0, or better to fall back to the older standard and move every system back to 7.0 unless we know we need something that's only in 7.01?
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Display and graphics

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-08-08T17:59:56+00:00

    I've noticed that all my computers now show version 7.01, so I've taken to updating the font in graphics files when prompted. Some programs treat the two as separate fonts and complain that they can't find Arial version 7.00 and want me to confirm that it's OK to update the font requested by the app to 7.01. They look the same to me (definitely the same size to within a pixel on a full page width).

    Because Arial has been a system font, we never embedded it in the documents. We generally embed most other fonts in docs so they work everywhere, but not for generic text using long-standing system fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, etc.

    Still think it's weird and a little frustrating.

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  2. JosephT71 9,210 Reputation points
    2023-03-20T19:08:45+00:00

    Anyone using windows 11 insider because their canary is rumored to be windows 12. Or that Microsoft is randomly testing stuff on their end-users which Microsoft is acknowleging to some extent.

    If the 7.01 font is real and legit --- the only google search result with "7.01" in quotations (which means that google search result must contain 7.01) came from a chinese font sharing website and some bablosoft middleware (which is used by mining bot malware) --- then I don't see any problem just installing 7.01 on all your other computers.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-19T15:33:17+00:00

    Microsoft only list version 7.00.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/fonts/windows_11_font_list

    Yeah, so doesn't seem to be part of the OS, but no idea what general purpose software we installed that might have included a new version of the Arial font. I think all of these systems have the same apps installed. Certainly, they do have the same graphics packages installed. And why would anything update Arial -- that's an old font that's come with Windows since the early days. Generally, when an app installs a font, it's a NEW font that didn't ship with Windows.

    Completely baffled by this...

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  4. JosephT71 9,210 Reputation points
    2023-03-19T15:29:16+00:00

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-19T15:24:40+00:00

    Just an observation; 22H2 is an optional update

    I have it on several Laptops but not desktops

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