FreeCell

[jwoodard]

Okay, I admit it. I'm hooked on FreeCell with my morning coffee and we've now we've had a roll-out of Windows 2000 Pro and FreeCell wasn't included (sigh). I tried running my old FreeCell.exe but get a message that a library it requires cannot run on the 16 bit sub-system since its a win32.dll. Any work around?

[DaveA]

My system has the games on it.

"Start >Programs >Accessories >Games"
Listed under games I have:
'FreeCell'
'Minesweeper'
'Pinball'
'Solitaire'

These MAY have been a 'Option' when installing the OS. If you don't fimd them, check this out, it is from the online Windows help searching on 'Freecell'
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Playing the Windows games
Windows 2000 provides four games on the Start menu. You can add others using Add/Remove Programs.

FreeCell

The object of FreeCell is to move all the cards to the home cells, using the free cells as placeholders. To win, you make four stacks of cards on the home cells, one for each suit, stacked in order of rank, from lowest (ace) to highest (king).

Open FreeCell.

Minesweeper

The object of Minesweeper is to find all the mines as quickly as possible without uncovering any of them.

Open Minesweeper.

Space Cadet 3D Pinball

The primary goal of Space Cadet 3D Pinball is to launch the ball and then get as many points as possible by hitting bumpers, targets, and flags.

The game is divided into nine levels of play, represented as ranks. The lowest rank is Cadet, and the highest rank is Fleet Admiral. Advancement to the next rank is achieved by selecting and completing a series of missions. As you advance in rank, new and more challenging missions become available to you. The higher the rank, the greater the point reward.

Regardless of your skill level, you start each game with three balls and the rank of Cadet, and you earn additional balls and rank advancement as you play.

Open Space Cadet 3D Pinball.

Solitaire

The object of Solitaire is to use all the cards in the deck to build up the four suit stacks in ascending order, beginning with the aces.

Open Solitaire.

Notes

To open a game, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to Games, and then click the appropriate game.
If you do not see Games on your Accessories menu, then the games were not installed when Windows 2000 was installed. To find out how to install the games, see Related Topics.
For information about playing a game, click the Help menu in that game.


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To add or remove a Windows 2000 component

Open Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
Follow the instructions in the Windows Components wizard.
Notes

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.
To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.
Certain Windows Components require configuration before they can be used. If you installed one or more of these components, but did not configure them, when you click Add/Remove Windows Components, a list of components that need to be configured is displayed. To configure a component, click Configure, and then follow the instructions on the screen. To add a new component, click Components, and follow the instructions in the Windows Components wizard.

[WyllyWylly]

There's also the possibility that your network admin has disabled these games.

If you have access to the system files, then look for a hidden file called SYSOC.INF in WINNTInf. It may be marked read-only. If it is, uncheck that attribute, open it up in notepad, and look for ; old base components. In that section you'll see a line like this:

;Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

The semicolon is a comment. Remove it and you'll see the games listed in the Add/Remove components list.

If that doesn't get it, find a copy of the DLL that Freecell is begging for, and plop it in the SYSTEM32 directory, and go to the Run prompt. Type in RegSvr32 (component name). That should register the DLL that it wants within the system.

[jwoodard]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried the sysoc.inf file and found it in the location you mentioned, however there was no semi-colon ahead of the string. It reads as follows "Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,HIDE,7". I tried just deleting the "HIDE", saving the file and rebooting, but it still didn't present the games option in the add windows components list. As far as copying the .dll file, unfortunately the system doesn't tell me which one it's looking for. Any further suggestions?

[sonar25]

my copy of windows 2k didn't add spider

here is what I did: I unpacked a copy from a friends cd ( It's in cab 16-17, or 18 Don't remember exactly). I then put it into a dir and ran a shortcut to the start menu. and it seems to work. the file is about 532k I don't see why you can't do the same for freecell. the game is only 34k with 2 help files one 16k the other 13k.

[jwoodard]

Thanks for the suggestion, although we were not given OS CDs. Off hand, I don't know of anyone who has the 2000 Pro to get to the cab files. If and when I do, what is the process to locate and "unpack" the proper file?

[DaveA]

First you your IT's permission to install it. You need to be a Admin or power user, in order to install any software on Win 2K.
Most companies do NOT install these games because it is against company policy to have games on the machines.

[jwoodard]

Yeah, I know. I'm just being a little bad . . . maybe.

[Leif]

One of the great attributes of <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=free&Number=8749&page=0&vie w=expanded&sb=5>Powerdesk</A> is its ability to give an expanded view of both CAB and Zip files as if they were just another folder.
If you can find the file you want, you just copy it to its destination and Powerdesk takes care of the extraction.

[jwoodard]

Mark, Thanks for your help. You were on the right track. I went back and retried removing "HIDE" from the sysoc.inf file and it did the trick, allowing for the games applications to be added. Apparently I'd left a space in, not saved it properly or some such thing when I tried it before.