Video games have been included in versions of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting from Windows 1.0x, all published by Microsoft. Some games that have appeared in Microsoft Entertainment Pack and Microsoft Plus! have been included in subsequent versions of Windows as well. Microsoft Solitaire has been included in every version of Windows since Windows 3.0, except Windows 8 and 8.1. The latest version of Windows, Windows 11, includes Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Surf .
Microsoft planned to include games when developing Windows 1.0 in 1983–1984. Pre-release versions of Windows 1.0 initially included another game, Puzzle, but it was scrapped in favor of Reversi, based on the board game of the same name. [1] Reversi was included in Windows versions up to Windows 3.1. Solitaire was developed in 1988 by the intern Wes Cherry. [2] [3] [4] The card deck itself was designed by Susan Kare, who was known for her work on icon designs for the original Macintosh. [5]
Microsoft intended Solitaire to "soothe people intimidated by the operating system," and at a time where many users were still unfamiliar with graphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of a mouse, such as the drag-and-drop technique required for moving cards. [6] According to Microsoft telemetry, Solitaire was among the three most-used Windows programs and FreeCell was seventh, ahead of productivity-based applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel. [7] [7] Lost business productivity by employees playing Solitaire became a common concern since the game was included in Windows by default. [8]
The Microsoft Hearts Network was included with Windows for Workgroups 3.1, as a showcase of NetDDE technology by enabling multiple players to play simultaneously across a computer network. [9] The Microsoft Hearts Network would later be renamed Internet Hearts, and included in Windows Me and XP, alongside other online multiplayer-based titles. [10] 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet is a version of the "Space Cadet" pinball table from the 1995 video game Full Tilt! Pinball . [11]
In Minesweeper for Windows Vista and 7, the game comes with an alternate "Flower Garden" style, alongside the default "Minesweeper" style. [12] This is due to controversy over the original land mine theme of the game being potentially insensitive, and the "Flower Garden" style was used as the default theme in "sensitive areas". [13]
Support for Internet games for Windows Me and XP ended on July 31, 2019, and for Windows 7 on January 22, 2020. [10]
Several third party games, such as Candy Crush Saga and Disney Magic Kingdoms , have been included as advertisements on the Start menu in Windows 10, and may also be automatically installed by the operating system. [14] [15] Windows 11 includes the Xbox app, which allows users to access the PC Game Pass video game subscription service. [16] [17] Additionally, versions of the Microsoft Edge browser from 2020 onwards (bundled with Windows 10 and 11) include the Surf game. [18]
Starting from 2012 onwards, with the release of Windows 8, updated versions of previously bundled games are now under the brand Microsoft Casual Games, in addition to several brand new games. With the exception of Solitaire Collection being included in Windows 10 and 11, these games are not included with Windows, and are instead available as ad-supported free downloads in Microsoft Store. [19] [20]
Premium monthly and annual subscriptions are available, which removes advertisements and offers several gameplay benefits, a move that has been criticized by reviewers as a way to "nickel and dime" users, since previous versions of Solitaire and previously bundled games did not include any advertisements or paid subscriptions. [21] [22] There are five Windows games under the Microsoft Casual Games banner: [23]
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(December 2023) |
| Games included with Microsoft Windows releases | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0x | 2.0x and 2.1x | 3.0 | 3.1 [24] | NT 3.1 , NT 3.5 and NT 3.51 | 95 | NT 4.0 | 98 | 2000 | Me | XP | Vista [25] | 7 [26] | 8 and 8.1 | 10 [19] | 11 | |
| Reversi |  | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Solitaire | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 1] | [lower-alpha 1] |
| Minesweeper | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| FreeCell | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 1] | [lower-alpha 1] |
| Hover! | | | | | |  [lower-alpha 2] | | | | | | | | | | |
| 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Hearts | | | | [lower-alpha 3] | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Spider Solitaire | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 1] | [lower-alpha 1] |
| Internet Hearts | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Internet Backgammon | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Internet Checkers | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Internet Reversi | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Internet Spades | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Inkball | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 4] | [lower-alpha 5] | | | | |
| Purble Place | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mahjong Titans | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 5] | [lower-alpha 6] | | | |
| Chess Titans | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 5] | [lower-alpha 6] | | | |
| Tinker | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 7] | | | | |
| Hold 'Em | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 7] | | | | |
| Solitaire Collection | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Surf | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | [lower-alpha 8] | [lower-alpha 9] |
Microsoft Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For instance, Windows NT for consumer and corporate desktops, Windows Server for servers, and Windows IoT for embedded systems. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Windows Embedded Compact.
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and business users and Windows Me for home users, and is available for any devices running Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows Me that meet the new Windows XP system requirements.
A boss key, or boss button, is a special keyboard shortcut used in PC games or other programs to hide the program quickly, possibly displaying a special screen that appears to be a normal productivity program. One of the earliest implementations was by Friendlyware, a suite of entertainment and general interest programs written in BASIC and sold with the original IBM AT and XT computers from 1982 to 1985. When activated, an ASCII bar graph with generic "Productivity" and "Time" labels appeared. Pressing F10 again would return to the Friendlyware application.
Full Tilt! Pinball is a pinball video game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. It features pre-rendered 3D graphics and three tables: Space Cadet, Skullduggery, and Dragon's Keep. On each table, side displays show the players' scores, ball numbers, player numbers, various other information, and a table-specific image.
My Network Places is the network browser feature in Windows Explorer. It was first introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 and was renamed My Network Places in Windows 2000 and later, before being replaced in Windows Vista.
A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessions, and require less learned skill. They do not expect familiarity with a standard set of mechanics, controls, and tropes.
There were various games and applications available in Windows Live Messenger that could be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging a "buddy".
Microsoft Mahjong is a computer game version of mahjong solitaire published by Microsoft. The version titled Mahjong Titans was developed by Oberon Games and included in Windows Vista and Windows 7. It takes advantage of the new graphical user interface (GUI) of Windows Vista, and includes features such as tile set and background choices. The game did not make it to Windows 8; however, a standalone version, developed by Arkadium and published by Microsoft Studios, can be downloaded from the Windows Store free of charge and played without download on the web.
Spider Solitaire, also known as Microsoft Spider Solitaire, is a solitaire (NA)/patience (EU) card game that is included in Microsoft Windows. It is a version of Spider. As of 2005, it was the most played game on Windows PCs, surpassing the shorter and less challenging Klondike-based Windows Solitaire.
Solitaire is a computer game included with Microsoft Windows, based on a card game of the same name, also known as Klondike. Its original version was programmed by Wes Cherry, and the cards were designed by Susan Kare.
Microsoft Minesweeper is a minesweeper-type video game created by Curt Johnson, originally for IBM's OS/2, that was ported to Microsoft Windows by Robert Donner, both Microsoft employees at the time. First officially released as part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1 in 1990, it was first included in the standard install of Windows 3.1 in 1992, replacing Reversi from Windows 3.0. Microsoft Minesweeper was included without major changes in all subsequent Windows releases until Windows Vista, at which time an updated version by Oberon Media replaced it. In Windows 8 and later the game is not included with a fresh Windows install, but Microsoft Studios has published an updated version of it, developed by Arkadium, on Microsoft Store.
Microsoft Entertainment Pack, also known as Windows Entertainment Pack or simply WEP, is a collection of 16-bit casual computer games for Windows. There were four Entertainment Packs released between 1990 and 1992. These games were somewhat unusual for the time, in that they would not run under MS-DOS. In 1994, a compilation of the previous four Entertainment Packs were released called The Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack. A Game Boy Color version was released in 2000.
Minesweeper is a logic puzzle video game genre generally played on personal computers. The game features a grid of clickable tiles, with hidden "mines" scattered throughout the board. The objective is to clear the board without detonating any mines, with help from clues about the number of neighboring mines in each field. Variants of Minesweeper have been made that expand on the basic concepts, such as Minesweeper X, Crossmines, and Minehunt. Minesweeper has been incorporated as a minigame in other games, such as RuneScape and Minecraft's 2015 April Fools update.
Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995.
Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0.
Microsoft Edge is a proprietary, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. Released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One, it was initially built with Microsoft's own proprietary browser engine, EdgeHTML, and their Chakra JavaScript engine. Later on, it got ported to Android and iOS as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project. In late 2018, Microsoft announced it would completely rebuild Edge as a Chromium-based browser with Blink and V8 engines, which allowed the browser to be ported to macOS. The new Edge was publicly released in January 2020, and on Xbox platforms in 2021. Microsoft has since terminated security support for the original browser, and Edge is also available on older Windows versions, as well as Linux.
Microsoft Solitaire Collection is a video game developed by Microsoft Casual Games and published by Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. It combines the Solitaire, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire titles that were included with previous versions of Windows. It also introduces Pyramid and TriPeaks to Windows for the first time, as well as new daily challenges and themes. Unlike the games included in Windows 7 and earlier versions, Microsoft Solitaire Collection is freemium adware with Xbox Live integration.
Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021. It succeeded Windows 10 (2015) and is available for free for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 system requirements.
