How To Delete Entries in 'Recently Used Fonts'

Michael-D · #1 08-29-2025, 04:28 AM

Hello everyone,
I am from Germany and only have my good old school English. So please forgive any grammars (if any)!!!

Two days ago, I created a Thread in the Microsoft forum called How To Delete Entries in 'Recently Used Fonts' and unfortunately did not receive any replies. I still have the Office LTSC Pro Package. Ok, here's the translated Thread in your language...

1. Right-click in the “Recently Used Fonts” window.
Result: No success!

2. In the registry under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\ Common\Fonts,” I
added a DWORD value named “NoFontMRUList” and set it to “1” to disable the display of recently used fonts in the font selection box. Value “1”: “Recently used fonts” entry is disabled.
Value “0”: “Recently used fonts” entry is enabled.
Result: No success!

3. In the registry under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\ Word\Options” I added a “New String” => ‘NoFontMRUList’ and set it to the value “1”.
Result: No success!

Note: The numbers in the registry (11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0 16.0) may vary depending on the version of Word! The folder 16.0 in the registry stands for Office 2016, 2019, 2021, and LTSC!

4. Then I created Macro with content as follows...

HTML Code:

Sub ClearRecentFonts() ' Löscht Einträge der Zuletzt verwendeten Schriften
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim F As Font
    For i = 1 To 100 ' Delete entries in FontMRU
        On Error Resume Next
        F = ActiveDocument.Fonts(i)
        If F.Name <> "" Then F.Delete
        On Error GoTo 0
    Next i
    MsgBox "List of recently used fonts has been successfully deleted!", vbInformation, "Success"
End Sub

I get a message saying that the list has been deleted, but that's not true!
Result: No success!

5. And again: A macro written for direct deletion of the registry...

HTML Code:

Private Declare PtrSafe Function RegDeleteKey Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegDeleteKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String) As Long
Sub ClearRecentFonts() ' Löscht Einträge der Zuletzt verwendeten Schriften
    Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
    Dim RetVal As Long
    RetVal = RegDeleteKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Font MRU")
    If RetVal = 0 Then
        MsgBox "List of recently used fonts has been successfully deleted!", vbInformation, "Success"
    Else
        MsgBox "An error has occurred! Make sure you have closed all Word applications.", vbCritical, "Error"
    End If
End Sub

And again: Result: No success!

I'm slowly running out of ideas. Let someone say I haven't tried everything! What a crap

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can delete this list? The crazy thing is that with every other font I use, this list keeps getting longer and longer, and fonts that I've removed from the system still appear. That's not normal!!! Microsoft should have at least included an option for this in the settings... but as always...

Thank you in advance for your help....

Regards from Cologne, Germany...
Mike

Below is a picture (framed in red) so you can see about what I'm talking about.

Italophile · #2 08-29-2025, 05:05 AM

Simply typing "microsoft word remove fonts mru" into your preferred search engine would have given you the answer.

The correct registry entry you need to edit is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Offi ce\16.0\Word\Options

Create a new String Value under Options called NoFontMRUList and set the value to 1

Michael-D · #3 08-29-2025, 09:13 AM

I tried it but it don't work...

Registry branch: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Micro soft\Office\16.0\Common
New value => DWord Entry "NoFontMRUList" => Value "1". After I restarted my PC and started Word and I see that all Font entries were in. Too bad that it won't work. I will continue to look for a solution!

Thanks anyway...
Mike

Italophile · #4 08-29-2025, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael-D

I tried it but it don't work...

Registry branch: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Micro soft\Office\16.0\Common
New value => DWord Entry "NoFontMRUList" => Value "1". After I restarted my PC and started Word and I see that all Font entries were in. Too bad that it won't work. I will continue to look for a solution!

Thanks anyway...
Mike

It works perfectly. I tested it myself before posting.
If you use the exact registry entry I posted earlier you'll get better results. Simply making up registry entries in the hope that they might work won't get you anywhere.

Guessed · #5 08-29-2025, 08:59 PM

Italophile

I see a few different Registry paths have been listed in this thread. The one you listed didn't work for me initially but I tried a few times and think I may have erred before hitting the right combination.

Code:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options

String Key name: NoFontMRUList
Value: 1

I'm thinking that perhaps when I first created the key, the name included a space after the NoFontMRUList
Then I also think, trying a few different formats for the key remained an issue. DWord didn't work for me but String Value did

I also found this path from a Youtube video - kudos to OnlineComputerTips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACVerhMHzJY

Italophile · #6 08-30-2025, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guessed

Italophile

I see a few different Registry paths have been listed in this thread. The one you listed didn't work for me initially but I tried a few times and think I may have erred before hitting the right combination.

Code:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options

String Key name: NoFontMRUList
Value: 1

I'm thinking that perhaps when I first created the key, the name included a space after the NoFontMRUList
Then I also think, trying a few different formats for the key remained an issue. DWord didn't work for me but String Value did

I also found this path from a Youtube video - kudos to OnlineComputerTips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACVerhMHzJY

I only listed one registry entry, which I found by simply searching "microsoft word remove fonts mru"

The video you mention was one of the search results I looked at. I still tested it before posting though, just to be certain it worked.

Michael-D · #7 08-30-2025, 05:59 AM

OMG that did the trick!!! Thank you soo much You made my day

To Reiterate

The correct branch is:

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office

1. Create a new Key named "Office"
2. Create a new Key below Office called 16 or whatever your Office Version you have [*]
3. Create a new Key below 16 called "Word"
4. Create a new Key below Word called "Options"

Your Registry Path should looke like:

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options

5. Create a new String Value called NoFontMRUList
6. Double click on this entry and enter a value of 1

Meaning: Value 1 = Enable | Value 0 Disable

[*] The numbers in the Registry (11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0 16.0) may vary depending on the version of Word! The folder 16.0 in the registry stands for Office 2016, 2019, 2021, and LTSC Version!

A brief guide as a thank you for the kind and professional assistance!

Mike

Charles Kenyon · #8 08-30-2025, 04:56 PM

EDIT: following is mistaken. Oops! See following post from Italophile.
===========================================

Sorry, no.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Offi ce\16.0\Word\OptionsShould exist on any Windows computer which has had a version of Word after Word 2013 installed.

You do not need to create these keys. They should exist already.

I am glad this worked for you.

Italophile · #9 08-31-2025, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles Kenyon

Sorry, no.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Offi ce\16.0\Word\OptionsShould exist on any Windows computer which has had a version of Word after Word 2013 installed.

You do not need to create these keys. They should exist already.

I am glad this worked for you.

Sorry, no. The entries under \Policies\ will not exist by default. They are only created if you add a policy, otherwise you need to add the keys.

Michael-D · #10 09-01-2025, 03:27 AM

Some interesting news for you:

As you can read in this thread, the correction in the registry under...

Code:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Option

and the entry “NoFontMRUList” worked perfectly. At least temporarily.

The problem now is that when a new font type is selected, the “Recently Used Fonts” entry is no longer added. Even deactivating or deleting the “NoFontMRUList” entry does not work. I have no idea why. So I started the System Recovery and it works again.

My advice: It's best to "Stay Away From This One!"

Sometimes we have to collect some experiences and I think Microsoft did this for a reason. Just for your information

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