diff --git a/VimR/AppearancePref.swift b/VimR/AppearancePref.swift
index fddf7a83..b41de516 100644
--- a/VimR/AppearancePref.swift
+++ b/VimR/AppearancePref.swift
@@ -99,7 +99,9 @@ class AppearancePref: PrefPane, NSComboBoxDelegate, NSControlTextEditingDelegate
     fontPopup.action = #selector(AppearancePref.fontPopupAction)
 
     // This takes approx. 0.8s - 1s on my machine... -_-
-    fontPopup.addItems(withTitles: self.fontManager.availableFontNames(with: .fixedPitchFontMask)!)
+    DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
+      fontPopup.addItems(withTitles: self.fontManager.availableFontNames(with: .fixedPitchFontMask)!)
+    }
 
     let sizeCombo = self.sizeCombo
     sizeCombo.delegate = self
diff --git a/VimR/UiRoot.swift b/VimR/UiRoot.swift
index 17bafbb3..4de8e8cb 100644
--- a/VimR/UiRoot.swift
+++ b/VimR/UiRoot.swift
@@ -20,12 +20,7 @@ class UiRoot: UiComponent {
 
     self.fileMonitor = FileMonitor(source: source, emitter: emitter, state: state)
     self.openQuicklyWindow = OpenQuicklyWindow(source: source, emitter: emitter, state: state)
-
-    // We dispatch the initialization of the pref window in the background since the population of the font list
-    // in the appearance pref pane takes approx. 0.8s - 1s on my machine... -_-
-    DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
-      self.prefWindow = PrefWindow(source: source, emitter: emitter, state: state)
-    }
+    self.prefWindow = PrefWindow(source: source, emitter: emitter, state: state)
 
     source
       .observeOn(MainScheduler.instance)
@@ -54,7 +49,7 @@ class UiRoot: UiComponent {
 
   fileprivate let fileMonitor: FileMonitor
   fileprivate let openQuicklyWindow: OpenQuicklyWindow
-  fileprivate var prefWindow: PrefWindow?
+  fileprivate let prefWindow: PrefWindow
 
   fileprivate var mainWindows = [String: MainWindow]()
   fileprivate var subjectForMainWindows = [String: PublishSubject<MainWindow.State>]()