How does Windows 7 save information when we install a Font as a shortcut?

I've recently had to reinstall Windows 7 in a computer directed at Media Creation; they have, like, 10,000 fonts and not all programs can handle that great a number, so they selectively use only the fonts they deem necessary for specific projects (speeds up applications' loading time considerably).

I tried digging through the Fonts sub-folder, but didn't find any shortcut files, leading me to believe Windows 7 implements a different strategy.