Microsoft Solitaire

Solitaire is a computer card game that is included in Microsoft Windows. It is a variant of Klondike. According to a Microsoft employee, it is the most used application in Windows. In Windows 10, this is available as Microsoft Klondike in the Microsoft Solitaire Collection.

History
Microsoft has included the game as part of the Microsoft Windows operating system since Windows 3.0, starting from 1990. The game was developed in 1989 by then intern Wes Cherry, who famously received no royalties from his work. The card deck itself was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare.

Microsoft intended Solitaire "to soothe people intimidated by the operating system", and at a time where many users were still unfamiliar with graphical user interfaces, it proved useful in familiarizing them with the use of a mouse, such as the drag-and-drop technique required for moving cards.

Lost business productivity by employees playing Solitaire has become a common concern since it became standard on Microsoft Windows. In 2006, a New York City worker was fired after Mayor Michael Bloomberg saw the Solitaire game on the man's office computer.

Features
Included with Microsoft Windows since Windows 3.0, Solitaire includes the ability to change the appearance of the design on the back of the cards, and the user is able switch between Vegas scoring and Standard scoring, or disable scoring entirely. The user can also choose whether to time the game for additional points if the game is won, and if one or three cards are drawn from the deck at a time; however there is a cheat that will allow you to temporarily draw one card at a time when draw three is set. The dealing of cards between games does not go by any particular order but is entirely random.

In Windows 2000 and later versions of Solitaire, players have the ability to right click on an open space to automatically move available cards to the four foundations in the upper right-hand corner, in a similar manner as FreeCell. If the mouse pointer is on a card, a right click will move only that card to its foundation, provided that it is a possible move. In a similar manner, left double-clicking will move the card the mouse is on to the proper foundation.

The Windows Vista and Windows 7 versions of the game save statistics on the number and percentage of games won, and it also allows users to save incomplete games and choose cards with different face styles.