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.