How to deploy fonts using Configuration Manager 2012 R2

Transcription

1 In this post we will see steps on how to deploy fonts using Configuration Manager 2012 R2. If you have been tasked with deploying fonts using SCCM this post should help you. A font is a set of printable or displayable text characters in a specific style and size. One of the most popular outline font software programs on today s computers is TrueType fonts. TrueType fonts come with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Normally if you want to install a font the easiest way is to double-click on a font file to open the font preview and select Install. But if you want to deploy the same font on multiple computers, we have to make use of script that does the job. When you deploy a script (SCCM Package) to install the font, the user that is logged on to the computer will not be able to use or see these new fonts until they log out and log in back. If you run this script on a standalone computer the fonts are installed and can be seen used by users. The strange thing is when SCCM deploys the same package and runs the same script the fonts gets installed correctly but they appear to be missing. After a log off and login the fonts can be seen. As mentioned earlier we will use a script to deploy font. You can download the script by clicking on the link. How to deploy fonts using Configuration Manager 2012 R2 Copy the script file and font to a shared folder. The font that I be deploying is Marlboro font which is available free for Download. Open the script file with notepad or any editor, set the font source path to the location where the font is located. You just need to specify the path up to the folder where the font is present. Save and close the file.

2 In Configuration Manager console, choose Software Library. In the Software Library workspace, expand Application Management, and then choose Packages. Right click Packages and click Create Package. Specify the Name, Source folder and click Next.

3 Choose the Program Type as Standard Program. Click Next.

4 Specify the Name for the standard program, enter the Command line as cscript.exe filename.vbs. Choose the program to run whether or not a user is logged on. click Next.

5 Click Next.

6 The package has been created successfully. Click Close.

7 After the package is created, click on the package and at the bottom pane, click the Programs tab. Right click the Program and click Properties. On the General tab, choose After running option to Configuration Manager logs user off. As I mentioned in the beginning of the post that when the script installs new font, until the user logs out and logs in back the font is not seen. Click Apply and OK.

8 Your package is ready to be deployed. Right click on the package and Distribute the content to the DP. Once the content is available with the DP, right click the package and click Deploy. Deploy the package to the desired collection. Choose the deployment purpose as Available or Required. Since a log off is required after we deploy this package, I will be deploying this package as Available. A log off notification will be seen by user when the software is is installed from the Software Center. After you deploy the package, wait for few minutes, the package will be available for install in the software center. To install the software click Install Selected.

9 After the software is installed, the status is now Pending Logoff. To log off click on Logoff.

10 After the user logs in, on the client computer, launch the Control Panel, click on Fonts and in the search bar type the font name. You can see that the font Marlboro Regular is in list of fonts.

11 On the client computer open execmgr.log file for troubleshooting the deployment. In the below screenshot we see that the Marlboro font has been installed successfully.

12 So how do you verify whether the font is available for use?. Open Ms Word or notepad, look for changing the default fonts and you will see the installed font under Fonts.

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