A little over a month ago, Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released to the public. The Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 includes many changes, improvements, and features. Those of you have been using Windows 8 CP would know that it doesn’t include popular free games that were part of previous versions of Windows.
While Microsoft will definitely add free games to the final version (RTM) of Windows 8, many users who have moved from Windows 7 to Windows 8 CP are missing the popular Chess, FreeCell, Hearts, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Minesweeper, Mahjong Titans, and Purble Place games. So, how to play all these games in Windows 8 as well?
One can’t play these games just by copying the executable from Windows 7 to Windows 8. You need to edit one or more system files! As every Windows 8 can’t manually edit these files, Tito@MDL has created a small utility that lets you use all free Windows 7 games in Windows 8 as well.
Play Windows 7 games in Windows 8
Step 1: Start the procedure by copying the Microsoft Games folder from your Windows 7 drive to Windows 8. That is, navigate to Program Files folder present in the installation drive and copy Microsoft Games folder to Programs Files folder in your Windows 8 drive. Please note that you need to copy games from a working x86 Windows 7 machine only.
Note that x64 users need to copy the Microsoft Games folder to Program Files (x86) folder.
Step 2: In your Windows 7 machine, navigate to the Windows\System32 folder. Copy cardgames.dll files into the game’s folder (in Windows 8 drive) that you wish to play.
For instance, if you want to play the Chess game, you need to copy the cardgames.dll file to the Chess folder present under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games. And if you’re going to play all the games, you will need to copy the DLL files to all folders one by one.
Note that if you are running the x64 version of Windows 8, then the path will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games folder.
Step 3: Now, visit the developer’s page and download the tool to automatically edit files so that you can play your favorite Windows 7 game in Windows 8 as well. Please note that your antivirus software may detect this tool as malicious software and advise you against running the same. You can safely ignore the alert as it’s a false positive.
Step 4: Run the tool, click on the Patch button, browse to the game’s executable, and then click Open to finish the job. You should now be able to play the game. Note that you need to all executable one by one. Use this tool for all the games that you wish to play. Good luck!
How to get the classic Windows 7 games in Windows 10 guide might also interest you.
Bo's friend says
Thanks Bo, editing those hex values makes the games work just fine.
Mumbly says
The download link inside the tutorial doesn’t work any more resp. is broken! Searching Google for “Microsoft Games Patcher” sometimes leads me to a newer version of the tool (1.2), but from dubious sources (it also looks completely different than depicted on the screenshot above) and trying to modify that version of the tool like described by Bo (see post dated Sept. 18, 2016) doesn’t work either as offests 31E09 and 2CBE0 are empty in version 1.2. Can someone please help me out with where to find the right patching tool? Many thanks in advance for your help!
Bo says
For Win10 July 2016 update 1607, Frits’ patch for the Win7-versions of Solitaire and Minesweeper (version 6.1.7600.16385) above must be modified:
Solitaire : 3B C6 0F 4C -> 33 CD 0F 4C (at offset 31E09)
Minesweeper: 3B C7 0F 4C -> 33 CE 0F 4C (at offset 2CBE0)
Bill says
You are a goddamned hero, Fritz. THANK YOU!!!!
No luck with Chess, Mahjong, Minesweeper, or Purple Place, but finally having Freecell, Hearts and Spider Solitaire is great.
(for anyone else with the same problem, neither method worked for those games, the hex combination was not present)
Jo Rae says
I downloaded the link, I tried to open it and received a message, what program / app do you want to use to open this.
I have very little idea of what I am doing…..
Frits says
Many are looking for how to patch the 64 bit version of these games.
Use your hex editor and look for this code:
3B C6 0F 4C
And change it into:
39 C0 0F 4C
Please help spread the word.
Petr says
Tested on windows 10 9926 , fully functional , thank you.
CBM says
I copied the game files from a 32bit Windows 7 computer to my 64 bit Windows 8 computer to Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Games. I also copied the .dll file to each of the game folders. I downloaded the Patch as stated in Step 3 above. When I tried to complete step 4, I clicked on Patch and got “File cannot be found.” And then I searched, and changed the search from Chess.exe to All exe. It could never find the game exe file.
Any suggestions?
thanks. cbm
penny wal says
Eric
Posted October 23, 2012 at 1:30 pm | Permalink
One thing isn’t right here… on my Windows 7 64bit machine the Microsoft Games folders is in “Program Files”, and NOT in “Program Files (x86)”. So this means that these are 64bit versions of the Microsoft games, and that they will never run in my 32bit version of Windows 8.
So that means that I’ll have to try to find the x86 version of those games…
SAME HERE ON BOTH MY COMPUTERS!!!! If you ever find out how, please let me know. TY
Nazmul Ahmed Noyon says
Wow, Today is 27 may 2013. And the patch is still working. Thank you very much. Just playing the Chess. Hope that the patch will not harm me in future.
Andrea Gibson says
It says that all the popular games Chess, FreeCell, Hearts, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Minesweeper, Mahjong Titans, and Purble Place games can be got from the store in windows 8, I have downloaded what I wanted from this list but am unable to find Purble Place is this in the store or will it be added at any time as my son loved this game and keeps asking to play it.
Thanks for your help.
Waygarth says
The method described here uses an downloaded tool to patch the .exe files of the games so that they will run under Windows 8. This is needed because they check the Windows version and refuse to run under anything later then Windows 7. All you are doing when you patch the .exe is chaneg the value that the code tests against so that Windows 8 will pass the test.
I am not prepared to use the downloaded tool for two reasons:
1. Downloading and running an executable file from somebody you don’t know from Adam off some random web-site is asking for trouble!
2. It wouldn’t work anyway in my case, because I upgraded from Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 8 64-bit. The patch tools assumes you have moved the Windows 7 folder to the same place on Windows 8 – so it only works for 32-bit Win7 moved to 32-bit Win8 or 64-bit Win7 moved to 64-bit Win8.
So here is how to do it manually:
1. When you up[grade to Win8, the Program Files and Windows folders from the previous installation are moved into a folder called Windows.old. So you should be able to find a folder called \Windows.old\Program Files\Microsoft Games containing the Windows 7 games
2. Create a new folder in c:\Program Files
vagelas13 says
I do not succeed I did all what I read here, but now I have nothing to inZ ? to do it again some help;
MegaritzMom says
Everything worked fine for the single-user games. For the multiuser games Backgammon, Spades, and Checkers, it wanted cmnclim.dll and zgmprxy.dll (of course it only told me one at a time), so I found those in Windows\System32 on the Windows 7 machine, copied them and pasted into the same folder on the Windows 8 machine. I also copied cmnclim.cll.mui from Windows\System32\en-US into that folder on the Windows 8 machine for good measure, and it worked. By the way, all these games were 32-bit even though both machines are 64-bit with 64-operating system.
NonaLinda says
Just did this, and it worked! I am THRILLED to have my games back! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Martin says
You know…when upgrading from 7 to 8…well … For me it didn’t leave any win7 folders!
What then?
ana hay says
worked thanks very much
Dale Orr says
SORRY! The developer was woot332; Tito was the person who posted the link.
Dale Orr says
Wonderful. Huge props to Tito for coming up with this. Dismissive sneers at Microsoft for breaking a good OS and trying to make my laptop a phone.
Kusal says
Thanks Man!!! This is working for me! (All Games)
I’m using Windows 8 (x86)
People like you are welcome!!!
Michael Morgan says
I had the same experience as ronl2k. The mentioned string is not there.
ronl2k says
Didn’t work. Copied all games folders from Win7/64 c:\program files and system32 dll to Win8/64 programs folders. My hex editor couldn’t find the string 7D 04 83 65 FC 00 33 C0 83 7D FC 01 0F 94 C0. The Windows Patcher method didn’t work either. Absolutely nothing happened when I launched the solitaire.exe without the patch.
carl says
I’m no computer wizard, but I followed your instructions and it works perfectly. Thanks a bunch.
Eric says
One thing isn’t right here… on my Windows 7 64bit machine the Microsoft Games folders is in “Program Files”, and NOT in “Program Files (x86)”. So this means that these are 64bit versions of the Microsoft games, and that they will never run in my 32bit version of Windows 8.
So that means that I’ll have to try to find the x86 version of those games…
Naushad says
Yes its working
joshi says
nothing worked for me .
done everything as u posted but results nothing
admin says
My bad! Fixed. Thanks.
mohamed embaby says
I like it so much and try to do it .
blaboom says
Good tutorial!
But, what about the last 2 words? “Good Lick” ?! ehehehe :P Please fix it ;)