Windows 7: Fixedsys as Console Font

It does not seem to be possible to set Fixedsys as the Console font for the Windows 7 command prompt. Setting it in the Registry silently fails and it does not appear in the Fonts list of the console. This might be due to several reasons:

• Fixedsys is the oldest Windows font. It might not support all the current criteria of a console font.

• Fixedsys is a progenitor of the font Lucida Console, which already appears as an option in the console.

• Fixedsys is a raster font (also called bitmap font) and the only raster fonts supported for the Windows Console are already listed in the Console.

• There is no font file named fixedsys.*. Fixedsys is a font name mapped to several old raster fonts with the name pattern *fix*.fon found in the C:\Windows\Fonts directory. These fonts are aimed at different old terminals like VGA, CVGA and others. On Windows 7, these fonts are:

8514fix.fon
8514fixe.fon
8514fixg.fon
8514fixr.fon
8514fixt.fon
c8514fix.fon
cvgafix.fon
h8514fix.fon
hvgafix.fon
j8514fix.fon
jvgafix.fon
s8514fix.fon
svgafix.fon
vgafix.fon
vgafixe.fon
vgafixg.fon
vgafixr.fon
vgafixt.fon

If you really want Fixedsys as a console font, get a Fixedsys clone that is available as a TrueType Font (TTF). One such clone is FixedsysTTF which can be used on the console. Set it to size 16 and Bold and it looks exactly like Fixedsys does by default.