Lifehacker have an article up on their website detailing the process of switching from the default fonts used by most websites and the computer system to the Vista fonts. This is easier done than one would think. A user who wants to enable those fonts in the Firefox web browser needs to have a working installation of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Office 2007 or the free Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007. This ensures that the Vista fonts are installed on the computer system. Vista users do not need to perform this operation since their operating system ships with those fonts.

The next step involves switching to ClearType if the computer is connected to an LCD monitor. This can be done with a powertoy from Microsoft.

It is then time to configure Firefox to use the Vista fonts instead of the default fonts after installation of the fonts and enabling ClearType. This is done in the Tools > Options > Content menu. A click on the advanced button under Fonts & Colors will display the following configuration menu. Just switch to the same fonts and settings that are shown in the following image:

It is important to uncheck the checkbox at the bottom to prevent pages from selecting the fonts. The result can be a better readability and is something worth to try.

If you want to make the transition complete you need to take care of those font settings as well. Here is what you need to do to make this happen. I advise you to create a backup of your Registry and probably create a new System Restore point as well to be on the safe side. If you have not already installed the Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer 2007 do that now. This program installs the Vista fonts on your Windows XP system.

The fonts stay on the system even if you uninstall the Powerpoint Viewer later. The application adds several new fonts to your system. Please refer to the first article on how to use those fonts on your system. I assume you have done that and picked a font that you would like to use.

Now download Movefile from Microsoft and put it in your Windows directory. We also need a script that changes the settings in the Registry to the new font that you want to use. You can download that script from the German PC Welt mag (PC World). Just click on the Zum Download link to download it to your computer.

It comes as a self extracting archive, extract it and open it in your text editor. Please note that this script is replacing the system fonts with Corbel, if you want another font replace Corbel with the name of that font. This script add the font Consolas which is another Windows Vista font to the command line. You can choose it in the Properties of the command line.

Make sure the two files of Movefile are in the Windows directory and that you have installed the Powerpoint 2007 Viewer. Execute the script, it will only take a second and ask you to restart your computer. The new font is clearly visible after the restart. This is best done on a LCD monitor because the fonts are cleartype fonts.