Changing the default system font in Windows 11

Although Windows 11’s built-in settings provides a Personalization > Fonts section, there actually isn’t a way to change the system font from here:

This can be easily changed on many Linux distributions using GUI tools, such as the desktop environment’s settings manager. Here you can see Liberation Sans and Liberation Mono configured in the fonts tab of xfce4-settings:

There is a way to change the system font in Windows, which involves 2 steps:

1. Using this registry script, changing Arial to the desired Windows font:

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
   "Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
   "Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
   
   "Segoe UI"="Arial"
   

2. Changing the WindowMetrics font, via one of the two means:
   • Another registry script, replacing all occurrences of the font represented in hex to the desired font in hex representation. The current font in the script is Arial (which was the default font in many earlier versions of Windows):

     Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
     
     [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
     "IconTitleWrap"="1"
     "Shell Icon Size"="32"
     "BorderWidth"="-15"
     "CaptionFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\
       00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "CaptionHeight"="-330"
     "CaptionWidth"="-330"
     "IconFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,\
       00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "MenuFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,\
       00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "MenuHeight"="-285"
     "MenuWidth"="-285"
     "MessageFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\
       00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "ScrollHeight"="-255"
     "ScrollWidth"="-255"
     "SmCaptionFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,\
       00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "SmCaptionHeight"="-330"
     "SmCaptionWidth"="-330"
     "StatusFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\
       00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,41,00,72,00,69,00,61,00,6c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
       00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
     "PaddedBorderWidth"="0"
     "AppliedDPI"=dword:00000060
     "IconSpacing"="-1125"
     "IconVerticalSpacing"="-1125"
     "MinAnimate"="0"
     

   • Using a 3rd party tool called Advanced System Font Changer. Note, that this tool requires a license for full use.