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Why Microsoft Bundled Solitaire with Windows for 30 Years

Microsoft Solitaire — specifically the Klondike variant — has been bundled with Windows since 1990. Over 35 years, it has been installed on billions of computers and almost certainly played by more people than any other piece of software in history. Yet the original business reason for bundling it had nothing to do with entertainment. Here's the story.

The Mouse Problem

In 1989, Microsoft was preparing Windows 3.0 — its first commercially successful graphical operating system. Windows 3.0 would require users to use a mouse, an input device most office workers had never touched.

Internal user research showed two specific skill gaps:

  1. Drag-and-drop: Workers couldn't reliably press the mouse button, move the cursor, and release at the right moment. They'd release too early, dropping items in random places.
  2. Precise clicking: Hitting small targets with confidence required practice.

Microsoft needed a way to teach these skills without making users feel like they were doing tutorial work.

The Intern's Project

Wes Cherry was a summer intern at Microsoft in 1988. As his side project, he wrote a Klondike Solitaire game in C, using the still-experimental Windows APIs. His version had the bouncing- cards win animation that became iconic.

When Cherry showed it to Microsoft executives, someone realized Solitaire was perfect mouse training:

Cherry's Solitaire was bundled with Windows 3.0. Within a year, it was the most-used Windows application — including Microsoft's flagship Word and Excel.

The Royalty That Wasn't

Wes Cherry famously received no royalties for Klondike Solitaire, despite it becoming the most-played computer game in history. He was paid his intern salary and not given equity or licensing rights.

Cherry once joked he was "paid in exposure." He went on to co-found other companies and run an orchard in Vashon, Washington, but the original Solitaire intern story remains a cautionary tale about creative work for hire.

The 1990s Productivity Crisis

Within months of Windows 3.0's release, IT departments began worrying about a new problem: workers were spending hours playing Solitaire instead of working. Articles in business magazines debated the productivity cost.

Some companies banned Solitaire. Others put it on internal block-lists. Microsoft engineers found ways to hide Solitaire even when the corporate IT removed the shortcut.

The irony: the same game that taught millions of workers to use the mouse was now being blamed for stealing their productive hours.

FreeCell, Spider, and the Solitaire Family

After Klondike's success, Microsoft kept adding variants:

By Windows XP (2001), the Microsoft Games suite included Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, Hearts, Minesweeper, and a few others — collectively the "Microsoft Entertainment Pack" legacy.

The Removal That Wasn't

Windows 8 (2012) controversially shipped without the bundled Solitaire suite. Microsoft moved Solitaire to a free Windows Store app, requiring users to install it separately. Public outcry was significant — Solitaire was effectively a Windows feature, not an app.

With Windows 10 (2015), Microsoft Solitaire returned as a pre-installed app, though now with ads (you could pay $1.99/month to remove them — a notorious decision).

As of Windows 11, Solitaire remains pre-installed.

The Cultural Footprint

Microsoft Solitaire has been:

Why It Still Works

35 years after Wes Cherry wrote his summer project, Klondike Solitaire still occupies the same psychological niche:

  1. Quick to learn (any adult can play)
  2. Endlessly variable (no two deals are identical)
  3. Mild challenge (you usually lose, which keeps you trying)
  4. No commitment (a single hand takes 5-10 minutes)
  5. Nostalgia for an era when computers were less overwhelming

That combination is exactly why people still play Solitaire on their phones during commutes, on web browsers during lunch breaks, and on PCs while waiting for downloads. The mouse question is long settled. Solitaire endures anyway.

Try the Classic

Our Klondike Solitaire is built on the same logical mechanic Wes Cherry wrote in 1988. The technology delivering it has been rewritten dozens of times. The game underneath hasn't changed.