How to Get Classic Windows XP Game Versions in Windows 7

If you currently want games and they are not appearing in Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, or Windows 7 Enterprise, then you may want to use  this post to enable them: How to Install Games That Come With Windows 7.

This post is meant for people who have seen the Windows 7 versions, but prefer the aesthetic look of the classic Windows XP versions. To get the Windows XP versions of FreeCell, Hearts, Minesweeper, Solitaire, and Spider Solitaire. Pinball is not included with Windows 7, but I wrote a post here to obtain it: How to Get Windows XP Pinball in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

To obtain the Windows XP versions of these games, you need to have access to a Windows XP system and need to have network file sharing or another method such as USB Flash Drive or CD-Rom to pull the files from the Windows XP system to the Windows 7 system.

My recommendation is to create a new folder, something like c:\classicgames, and copy the files there. Do not overwrite the Windows 7 versions of these files (if they exist).

FreeCell

Then...


Now...


On Windows XP, FreeCell requires 2 files,

c:\Windows\system32\freecell.exe
c:\Windows\system32\cards.dll

These files should be placed in the same folder on a Windows 7 system to function properly.

Hearts

Then...


Now...


I did some fairly extensive testing with the dependency walker tool and application compatibility settings and it appears that there is no way to get classic hearts in Windows 7 without using Windows XP mode or virtualizing Windows XP in some other way :(. Using Visual Studio, the error appears to occur with a call that occurs after creating the window. For those who try, this is the error:

The Microsoft Hearts Network has stopped working
Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  Application Name:    mshearts.exe
  Application Version:    5.1.2600.0
  Application Timestamp:    3b7d847a
  Fault Module Name:    mshearts.exe
  Fault Module Version:    5.1.2600.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:    3b7d847a
  Exception Code:    c0000005
  Exception Offset:    0000a58f
  OS Version:    6.1.7601.2.1.0.272.7
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1:    0a9e
  Additional Information 2:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
  Additional Information 3:    0a9e
  Additional Information 4:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Minesweeper

Then...


Now...



There is only a single file that needs to be copied from the Windows XP installation to Windows 7,

c:\Windows\system32\winmine.exe

Solitaire

Then...


Now...


To get the classic version of solitaire, two files need to be copied from Windows XP,

c:\Windows\system32\cards.dll (yes... this is the same one required for FreeCell)
c:\Windows\system32\sol.exe

Spider Solitaire

Then...


Now...


Only one file is needed from the XP installation to run the classic version of Spider Solitaire,

c:\windows\system32\spider.exe

Have fun!

See Also,
How to Create Your Own Free Ringtones
How to Get Windows XP Pinball in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
How to Install Games That Come With Windows 7
Get HyperTerminal in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2