GIMP stuck on "Loading Data Files: Fonts"

Even the latest Windows version 2.8.22 has this problem.

Go into Preferences -> Folders -> Fonts and delete all folders listed there.

GIMP has a couple user font folders listed there by default, for some reason on Windows those folders make the font loading part really slow, like 15-30 seconds even on SSD. Now GIMP loads in a few seconds on SSD.

Hope this helps.

This step can take a long time. And due to the way file timestamps are handled, it can e.g. happen on daylight saving time switches.

In order to check what exactly is happening there, you should use a file access monitor like Process Monitor - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb896645.aspx.

This can tell you if GIMP is reading font file to build the font cache, and will also provide you with some sort of progress information, because the font files will be mostly accessed in alphabetical order (or reverse).

The unresponsive window is a symptom of that, just ignore it.

Go to Gimp folder. Create a shortcut from GIMPPortable.exe or GIMP.exe. Go to properties of your new shortcut. And in the Target field at the end add " -f" like this

D:\Progs\GIMPPortable\GIMPPortable.exe -f 

Have a nice painting )

Addition:

GIMP comes with a so-called batch mode that allows you to do image processing from the command line. See gimp --help

-f, --no-fonts          Do not load any fonts

For more information look GIMP Batch mode

From this superuser answer
This worked for me.
First:delete the font folders.
Second:close gimp.
Third:open gimp.
Fourth:close gimp.
Fifth:this time when you open gimp, there will be no 'looking for fonts' process.