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I have a WPF app (.NET 3.5) that is generally run on our client's XP machines. Over the past 5 months, there have been three occasions where a corrupt font cache causes the application to stop responding on load.

Deleting the font cache per these instructions does solve the immediate issue.

However, I would like to find a way to either help prevent such corruption to begin with (most of what I've read suggests it has to do with updated video drivers without a reboot after?), or have my application handle a corrupt font cache in a graceful manner (shut down with an error message for the user, instead of sitting at state of "Not Responding" seemingly indefinitely), or have my application not use the font cache at all.

I'm open to other options, of course, those are the first three that came to my mind.

hilary
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  • Have you confirmed this problem exists with .NET Framework 4.0? This is a client machine, what sort of control does the client have over their machine? I assume a simple restart does not resolve the problem, or is not a solution that is viable? – Security Hound Dec 10 '10 at 18:23
  • Does this application provide any sort of text editor, where you might be allowing the user to choose a font, I found that Expression Web 3 has a similar problem with a corrupt font. Does your client have any custom fonts installed? – Security Hound Dec 10 '10 at 18:37
  • A simple restart does not resolve the problem. Since it is sporadic, I'm not sure how to test with .NET 4.0 -- see if all user can upgrade, upgrade the app and hope it doesn't happen any more? – hilary Dec 13 '10 at 17:57
  • As to custom fonts, I do not know, I will ask. We do not have a text editor where the user can choose a font, just simple data grid where they can type in values. – hilary Dec 13 '10 at 17:57
  • Was this problem resolved? What was the solution? – Mamta D May 26 '11 at 03:06
  • No - we have had fewer incidents - and, actually, it hasn't happened for a while - but I was never able to track down exactly why it was happening or feel confident that anything I'm doing in the code will handle for the issue. – hilary Aug 01 '11 at 22:41

1 Answers1

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I can't provide a solution but this seems to be an underlying windows/wpf bug. We've had the same problem on our product which is a closed Windows Embedded system. No software is ever installed or run except our own, no drivers changed after the initial install, etc but it happens. Our current solution is to always delete the cache on shutdown. Not great but works for us.

(Sorry this is an answer not a comment, I don't have the necessary reputation)

MarkDaniel
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  • Wow - thanks for the input. Always happy to know I'm not suffering some bit of computer crazy all by myself. – hilary Sep 23 '11 at 15:32