• Windows Vista operating system offers improved performance and a beautiful interface. While many of the basic games are old favorites from previous Windows versions, they have all been redesigned to look and perform better than they did before.
  
  Vista has made accessing your games easy: all Vista games are stored in the "Games" folder, from the Start Menu and a few new games have been added.
  
  

Classic Card Games on Vista

• The old favorites remain: Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, FreeCell and Hearts.
  
  Solitaire is the traditional card game where the player must stack runs of organized cards before the deck runs out. Spider Solitaire is a complex version of Solitaire, using two decks of cards. The player must remove cards from the board in organized runs. FreeCell is played with one 52-card deck. The player must build stacks of cards ("cells") while arranging them in organized suits. Hearts is a four-player game, played with three virtual computer players. The goal is to eliminate as many cards as possible while avoiding points.
  
  All the games have slick graphics and fun animation. More options allow you to choose whether you want to play game sounds, allow animation or show tips as you play.
  
  

Brain Teasers on Vista

• There are four games on Vista that hone strategy skills and provide a lot of fun: Chess Titans, Minesweeper, Mahjong Titans and InkBall.
  
  Vista features a challenging chess game called Chess Titans. It has stunning 3-D graphics and realistic sounds as you move your chess pieces across the board. Chess Titans enables you to play against the computer or a human opponent.
  
  Minesweeper, that popular favorite from older versions of Windows, is back with a new look. Overturn tiles to reveal blank spaces or numbers, or land mines. Numbers in tiles are clues that tell you where a land mine is located. If you overturn a tile with a mine under it, the game is over.
  
  Mahjong Titans and InkBall are new additions to Vista. Mahjong is an ancient Chinese game similar to solitaire, but played with tiles. Vista's Majong Titans has responsive graphics and a beautiful game board which provides enjoyable gaming.
  
  InkBall is a challenging physics educational game. Balls are released onto the game board, and the player must manage the balls with ink strokes. Ink strokes are made with the mouse and the balls bounce off the strokes according to the shape and angle of the strokes.
  
  

Games for the Kids

• Purple Place is a new Vista game, designed especially for children. It has three colorful games that teach patterns, shapes, and colors. Game difficulty can be adjusted with a timer, advancing to more levels, or adding more components to the game puzzles.