What is the true purpose of "Klondike" and "Minesweeper"

Solitaire Klondike, Freecell and Minesweeper are popular games that are included in the basic set of Windows. These are fairly simple but exciting games: some people are willing to play for hours without stopping.

Although the games are fascinating, few know the purpose for which they were developed .

The oldest of these "Klondike" appeared in the version of Windows 3.0 in 1990. Although this game was invented at the end of the 18th century, the digital era showed that it is not necessary to have a real deck for a simple card game. But the true purpose of "Klondike" was quite different. It is much more modest: imperceptibly to teach people to confidently use the mouse.
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The goal of Klondike Solitaire was to ensure that a whole generation of computer users, accustomed to the text-based command line interface, taught themselves the concepts of drag-n-drop, without even realizing it. Users are still pulling labels from place to place, and this fact proves that the plan worked.



Logic puzzle with numbers "Minesweeper" also had a specific task. It appeared on mainframes in the 60-70s, where the version called “Cube” (Cube) gained wide popularity. A few decades later, in 1992, Microsoft's Minesweeper version appeared in Windows 3.1 — not at all to demonstrate that Windows is such a great gaming system, but to train users to precisely control the mouse.

If you think that secretive user training using games is just a coincidence and conspiracy theory, look at Windows for Workgroups 3.1, the first version of Windows with network support. There, Microsoft added a game called Hearts, which, using NetDDE technology, could communicate with other clients on the local network. This is not a coincidence. With the help of the game, Microsoft showed the users new features of the operating system, tried to train and interest them.

In the end, “Free Cell”. It came out for Windows 3.1 as part of Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 2 and came bundled with Win32s, which ran 32-bit applications in the 16-bit version of Windows 3.1. It was the touchstone with which Microsoft tested Win32s. If the package is incorrectly installed, the “Free Cell” does not start. What people thought was a game was actually a hidden system test.

Over time, people are so used to these games that Microsoft decided to leave them in the next versions of the OS, although they have already completed their tasks. Only in 2012, Windows 8 without games appeared: users were offered to download solitaires (Solitaire Collection) and Saperra separately, and they had to pay for the version without ads.

In the most recent version of Windows 10, Microsoft returned the "Solitaire" . If you search for other games in the search box, the user will be shown links to the Windows Store, from where these games can be downloaded. Maybe this is also not accidental - a great motivation for users to find out how the Windows Store works. Perhaps the hidden training continues until now, after many years?

via mental_floss