The Font Test dialog uses the Uniscribe text shaping engine without additional magic done by Word. To test your font in other application, you can use the approach as suggested by Bhikkhu Pesala. It is not a work-around, but an actual feature
As explained, this feature already exists. A font has to be installed to see how it works with different Windows applications. The Font Test window installs the current font project as a temporary font for testing purposes in any Windows Application.