What is fontdrvhost.exe and Why is it Running?

What is fontdrvhost.exe?

fontdrvhost.exe is a legitimate Windows process related to font rendering in user mode. It stands for "Usermode Font Driver Host." This executable is responsible for hosting and managing user-mode font drivers on the system. Font drivers are essential components that help manage and render and display fonts correctly on the screen.

When you open documents or applications that involve text, the fontdrvhost.exe process ensures proper font rendering by working with font drivers. It plays a role in handling font-related operations in user mode, contributing to the overall display quality of text across various applications on your Windows system. In most cases, this process is not a cause for concern and is a normal part of the Windows operating system.

fontdrvhost.exe usermode font driver host

The correct location for the executable file used by Windows is C:\Windows\System32 provided your Windows installation is (Windows)

 the system32 folder will be the location of this file.

In Windows 10 file version 10.0.19041.3758 the SHA256 Checksum is 54578a57a450a152ef1dc1052d5734694f29532f6dc9e14fc102a4918e2365ca (Click to check with Virus Total)

fontdrvhost.exe usermode font driver Properties

So make sure all these properties are the same, if you find that this process is using too many resources, if could be from having to many tabs open in your browser to just not having enough physical RAM to handle the amount of rendered fonts in the Windows session.

So don’t worry: fontdrvhost.exe is a legit file

So even though on the surface this system program seems suspect, rest assured that this is a normal part of Windows functionality.