Apps
fontconfig
Fontconfig stores a generated font discovery cache under the user profile so applications can avoid rescanning every installed font file and rebuilding metadata on each launch. That cache contains serialized font pattern data such as family names, style and weight mappings, Unicode coverage, file timestamps, and directory scan results; Kudu removes these generated cache files from %LocalAppData%/fontconfig/cache so fontconfig can rebuild them automatically without touching your installed fonts, documents, or app settings.
Why clean fontconfig?
- Stale directory and timestamp entries make newly installed fonts fail to appear in apps until fontconfig rescans, so you see a font missing from menus even though it is installed in Windows
- Outdated family-to-file mappings can make apps pick the wrong face or weight, causing bold, italic, or CJK text to render with an unexpected fallback font
- Corrupted cache records force fontconfig to repeatedly rescan font folders, which shows up as slow first launches or a pause before text-heavy windows finish drawing
- Cache data generated before fonts were removed can leave ghost entries behind, so applications list fonts that error out or immediately fall back when selected
- When multiple applications update the cache over time, fragmented or inconsistent entries can lead to intermittent font matching differences between launches, visible as layout shifts or changed line breaks in the same document
- Large caches built from many installed fonts can waste disk space and lengthen startup font enumeration, while deleting them forces a clean rebuild from the current font set
What gets cleaned
Cache paths Kudu targets
Windows
%LocalAppData%/fontconfig/cache |
Frequently asked
Common questions about fontconfig
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