Restoring Desktop Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Other Classic Games in Windows 8

In this article we are going to explain how to restore Desktop Solitaire, Minesweeper, and other classic games in Windows 8. Windows 8 no longer includes the Desktop versions of Solitaire, Minesweeper, and other classic games. Assuming we have a Windows 7 computer lying around, we can copy the old versions of these games to your Windows 8 system and make a few tweaks to get them working.

Step 1

First, we navigate our Windows 7 computer to C:\Program Files\ and locate the Microsoft Games folder, then copy it to a USB drive (or other removable media).

 

Step 2

Then navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\ folder on your Windows 7 system and copy the CardGames.dll file to the USB drive, as well.

 

Step 3

Connect the USB drive to our Windows 8 system and copy the Microsoft Games folder to its old location at C:\Program Files\ on Windows 8.

 

Step 4

Then copy all folders if we want to play those games.

 

Step 5

Unfortunately, each of these games performs a Windows version check when it runs. We'll need to patch out the version check so they run properly.

If we use a hex editor to open each game's .exe file and search for the following bytes:

7D 04 83 65 FC 00 33 C0 83 7D FC 01 0F 94 C0

An easier way of patching is using Microsoft Games Patcher, which does this tedious work for you. Just download the patcher, double-click it, and click the Patch button.

Step 6

After patching or hex editing each game's .exe files, the Desktop versions of these classic games will run normally in Windows 8.

 

Step 7

We can right-click each game's .exe file to add it to our Start screen, pin it to our Taskbar, or create a shortcut.

 

Step 8

We can now play these classic games from the full-screen environment formerly known as Metro or the classic Windows Desktop.