Solitaire is the oldest of all the Windows games. This traditional game has captured the hearts and spare cranial cycles of millions. Yet, most people don’t know that there are game cheats they can employ to help them win at Solitaire in Windows 7.
To get started, choose Start→Games and double-click the Solitaire icon. (Or, you can take the express train: Click Start, immediately type sol, and press Enter.)
When playing Solitaire, you can choose between standard scoring and Vegas scoring. The cheats and bonus points vary depending on the scoring option.
Standard scoring
In standard scoring, you can choose either a Draw One or Draw Three option. Using the Draw One option, you can flip through the deck once with no penalty, and then you lose 100 points every additional time. Using the Draw Three option, you can flip through the deck three times with no penalty, and then you lose 20 points every additional time. You can use the following cheats and bonus points to improve your score.
A cheat is available for the Draw Three option. If you press Ctrl+Alt+Shift and then click the deck, Windows turns over one card at a time. Using standard scoring with this trick enables you to turn over every card in the deck three times before Windows starts sticking you with the 20-point-per-deck penalty.
If you move a card straight from the deck to the suit stacks you earn 10 points. However, if you move the card to the main playing table first and then to the suit stack, you can earn a total of 15 points.
In a timed game, you lose 2 points every 10 seconds. But you receive a bonus at the end of the game depending on how quickly you finish. (If the game lasted less than 30 seconds, you get no bonus. If it lasted more than 30 seconds, you earn a bonus of 700,000 divided by the number of seconds.) According to Microsoft, the highest possible score is 24,113.
Vegas scoring
Vegas scoring is simpler to explain — but harder to master. In Vegas scoring, you can flip through the deck three times if you’re using the Draw Three option. Using the Draw One option, you flip through only once. If you don’t solve the game during that time, the game is simply over.
If you press Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click the deck, Windows turns over one card at a time. You can use the Ctrl+Alt+Shift trick to flip through the entire deck three times — a boon for Vegas scorekeeping.
Want to win at Solitaire most of the time? The odds of winning go up exponentially for every Ace that is visible at the end of the deal. Just keep pressing F2 for a new deal until you see one or more Aces.