Too many fonts- won't let me delete!

In my Vostro 1500 running Vista Ultimate, it seems like every doggone program I have installs TONS of fonts, so now I have the appalling total of 2900+ fonts! I did a backup of the folder and then tried to delete some, as many are repititious in appearance and will never be used! Only the system won't let me delete; I get a message that the file is open in another program and that I should close that program and try again... only it's not!

I've tried it from Explorer and from Control Panel, as well as in Safe Mode. Same message.

How can I get rid of some of these blasted fonts? I think they're slowing my system down; it takes forever to shut down for one thing!

Thanx!:emotion-39: