Does the comicsans package work on stock Windows 10?

Question

I recently noticed that when using the \usepackage{comicsans} package in Windows 10, by default, all characters turn into squares. After a bit research, it was due to the fact that COMIC.ttf is no longer supported(included) in windows system????

A bit of shocking news. But then I manually downloaded and installed the font. However, when I use \textbf{text}, the characters wrapped inside still cannot be displayed correctly, as shown below.

Is there a way to solve it once for all?

Thanks.

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts}
\usepackage{comicsans}
%\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
%\usepackage[math]{iwona} %nice font
\usepackage[top=1cm,bottom=2cm,left=1cm,right=1cm]{geometry}

\usepackage{enumerate}
\usepackage{lastpage}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{} % clears the header and footer
%\fancyhead[C]{\textbf{FE5116}}
\fancyfoot[L]{Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
\textbf{Equation of a straight line}
\end{center}

\begin{minipage}[t]{0.55\textwidth}

In mathematics we are almost obsessed with finding the equations of straight lines. There are different ways of doing this, but the best way is to use the equation:
\[
    y-y_1 = m(x-x_1),
\]
where $m$ is the gradient of the line and $(x_1,y_1)$ is the coordinates of a point on the line. \\

So, using this equation, find the equation of the following lines, giving your answer in the form
\[
    ax+by+c = 0,
\]
where $a,b,c$ are integers (whole numbers -- no fractions).
\end{minipage}
%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.4\textwidth}
%
\end{minipage}



%% new command %%
\newcommand*{\myQues}[1]{%
\item #1 \\
    \vfill
    \hfill $\rule{6cm}{0.3mm}$ \quad (3)
}%

\begin{enumerate}[1)]
    \myQues{The line with gradient $4$ that passes through $(1,3)$.}
    \myQues{The line with gradient $2$ that passes through $(6,2)$.}
    \cleardoublepage
    \myQues{The line with gradient $1$ that passes through $(2,-3)$.}
    \myQues{The line with gradient $10$ that passes through $(-4,-6)$.}
    \cleardoublepage
    \myQues{The line with gradient $-2$ that passes through $(4,1)$.}
    \myQues{The line with gradient $-3$ that passes through $(-2,-5)$.}
\end{enumerate}

%\end{document}


\cleardoublepage
Now, what happens if the gradient is a fraction? We still want our final answer to consist of integers -- so no fractions \ldots

\begin{enumerate}[1)]
\setcounter{enumi}{6}
\myQues{The line with gradient $\frac{1}{2}$ that passes through $(5,2)$.}
\myQues{The line with gradient $\frac{2}{3}$ that passes through $(6,1)$.}
\cleardoublepage
\myQues{The line with gradient $\frac{3}{4}$ that passes through $(2,-2)$.}
\myQues{The line with gradient $-\frac{1}{5}$ that passes through $(-2,4)$.}
\cleardoublepage
\myQues{The line with gradient $3$ that passes through $(\frac{1}{3},4)$.}
\myQues{The line with gradient $-2$ that passes through $(-\frac{1}{4},-\frac{2}{9})$.}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 1

Thanks to UlrikeFischer, I’ve removed an inaccurate paragraph here. The package is out-of-date and incompatible with recent versions of Comic Sans MS.

You can try replacing the comicsans package with fontspec:

\usepackage{fontspec}
\defaultfontfeatures{Scale = MatchUppercase}
\setmainfont{Comic Sans MS}[Scale = 1.0]

If you also want to replace the math letters, you might load mathastext afterwards, or

\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{XITS Math}
\setmathfont[range = up]{Comic Sans MS}
\setmathfont[range = it]{Comic Sans MS Italic}
\setmathfont[range = bfup]{Comic Sans MS Bold}
\setmathfont[range = bfit]{Comic Sans MS Bold Italic}

According to Microsoft, Comic Sans MS is in fact included with Windows 10.

You can legally obtain the older version of that’s compatible with comicsans gratis as part of the redistributable Microsoft Core Fonts for the Web.