In Windows Vista, we introduced the Games Explorer. This is the place where you can launch and manage your games, including built-in Windows games such as Solitaire and Chess Titans, and also PC games such as Games for Windows (and Games for Windows – LIVE) titles.
In Windows 7, we are introducing new functionality to Games Explorer that we think people will enjoy. These new features in Games Explorer can not only be appreciated by the casual gamer looking to play one of Windows 7’s many built-in games, but also the more advanced PC gamer too.
The new features I am going to talk about here are available for you to try out in the Windows 7 Beta today.
When you first fire up Games Explorer in Windows 7, you will notice that Games Explorer is divided up between Games and Game Providers. Game Providers are the companies that distribute the games you install on your PC.
For example, I installed Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved from MSN Games, which was made by Bizarre Creations (the same folks behind Project Gotham Racing for the Xbox). MSN Games would be considered a Game Provider, and can take advantage of the new built-in functionality to Games Explorer in Windows 7. The only official Game Provider available today with the Windows 7 Beta is us (Microsoft). In the future, you can expect to see more Game Providers appear.
Games Explorer will deliver updates from Game Providers, including news and information regarding their own games. Updates from Game Providers appear in the right-hand Preview Pane when a Game Provider is selected. When you select the Microsoft Games Provider, you can see updates from us (see below screenshot).
Under “Options”, you can enable automatic update notifications for games, along with automatic updates to Game Provider news and information, or simply check yourself manually by right-clicking on a specific Game Provider or game and choosing “Check online for game updates”.
Another neat feature in the Windows 7 Games Explorer is the ability for you to see when an update is available for a game you have installed. I installed Flight Simulator X and Halo 2, and Games Explorer showed that an update was available for both these games.
Instead of having to launch the game and install the update through the game itself – you can now install game updates directly within Games Explorer.
In the Preview Pane for a game that has an update available, a button will appear to download that update. In the above screenshot, you can see I can choose to click “Download Now” for the update available for Halo 2 for Windows Vista. When you click “Download Now”, you are asked to confirm the download.
The update for the game will download and then the “Download now” button turns into “Install Now”.
One more thing… Games Explorer will track statistics for the games you play. As you can see – I’ve lost one game in both Chess Titans and Internet Checkers. Statistics are tracked for the different levels for each game. In the future, expect to see many of your favorite games take advantage of this functionality.
In a follow-up post coming very shortly, I’ll discuss the new Internet Games for Windows 7. Stay tuned!
W00t!
Wow Brandon, this is great news! I have played one or two of the built in games, but never noticed these new functions! Thanks for pointing all of this out.
Please add OPT-OUT of tracking if possible.
My boss might not like me losing 500 out of 600 Mahjong games, my wife might not like me playing so many Sims games, my local politician might rant that I play too much "Grand Theft Auto" or "Sex-bombs '07".
And while we're on the subject, Please (if at all possible) Add opt-out for confirmation messages "Are you sure you want to quit?" ("Save/don't save/ NEVER SAVE" etc).
Oh. (never update.) (Never collect.) (Clear Information)
Never mind.
Well, that all sounds nice, but customizing the right-click menu, which was very helpful in Vista, especially if you have a lot of mods, is a pain in Windows 7, as you have to do everything manually from the AppData Folder.
Stop nitpicking, 7's improvements include bringing unity to Windows, actually it seems to be a big focus for them XD and integrating game updates into the games explorer is a great start and probably fairly tedious to get off the ground.
Nevermind the games and all the new features....I used Windows Seven for about a month...had several times the blue screen of death because of my wireless device...I think.....also after installing FIFA 2009 my RAM was 98% used and didn`t free even after I restarted...plus many other probs...wich I`m sure the developers received because I alway send feedback when system crashed or something happend. Question is.... is there any change that we will not use a Vista based OS that consumes so many resources?Last question is about the WARP tech for Intel proc`s that would really help gamers and many other users...I`ve been reading many articles about it...so I need to know if it will be for real on Windows Seven?
Dear Windows Seven Team ,
I'm Reporting a bug on all windows versions ( including xp - vista and seven )
In Iran we are facing a problem with Persian Keyboard Layout.
We have a Keyboard Layout Standard with ISIRI 9147 that recently ( two or three years ) replace with old Persian Keyboard Layout Standard that formerly named ISIRL 2901.
We strongly wanna to have ISIRI 9147 Persian Keyboard Layout in Windows Seven.
I know much about this standard and I can Help you ( with any reward, just for ) to implement this standard into windows seven .
Please replace this keyboard layout with old one, this help us to solve our problem and help you to have a standard
appplication. nowaday we installing this layout in windows and remove old one, though most of people aren't familier with this standard but all expert remove old one and install ISIRI 9147 .
in Iran Rouzbeh PourNader and Behdad EsfahBod worked to implement this Keyboard layout ( Rouzbeh now working on Advogato
and Behdad now working on RedHat , also rouzbeh personal blog : www.advogato.org/.../diary.html and Behdad personal blog http://mces.blogspot.com/ )
at last , I'm waiting for your answer and hope you help us to solve our problem , Thank you Microsoft , and thank you Windows Seven Team
News and information = advertising from game providers to try other games of theirs. And most games anyway have their own auto-update mechanisms. I'd rather prefer to have Internet Hearts, Internet Reversi, InkBall, Tinker and Texas Hold'Em back rather than some decorative special folder that I barely open for 1-2 sec.
As long as developers and providers take advantage of this feature, it will be very useful and helpful. I'm sure Microsoft is marketing this to their partners now. I expect to see more of this at E309.
7flavor:
When I turn on my Xbox 360, I often get advertisements about new demos to try, skins to download, etc. I LOVE IT! My 120GB HD is now FULL of demos, arcade games, videos, etc. all thanks to that. So um... what's your point exactly?
Most games have their own auto-update mechanisms... yes. How GREAT would it be to have a centralized spot that took care of everything ahead of time, instead of having to launch each game individually to check for and/or install updates? Then again maybe you're a masochist!
The games folder is not just decorative, and with all of these new improvements, you'd have to be an idiot to call it that, and to only open it for 1-2 sec. I'm using the Beta and LOVE it. If you're going to whine about a few old missing games, double click on the MSN Games provider and you can get HUNDREDS of cool new ones. Good job MS!!
The games that have auto-update mechanisms don't need to be launched separately to be updated..they get updated whenever we play them, and its AUTOMATIC they get updated in the background..games explorer is still MANUAL, do you see the difference. As for ads and demos, it's a matter of preference that some users like them, some like only in the browser (where I can see reviews and screenshots before trying them). I am not against enhancements to Games Explorer but I don't get why Microsoft throws few new features and then removes some others. I'd be more happy if MS improves the games themselves. Chess Titans for example doesn't have online multiplayer yet and the AI/comp player is easily defeatable even at levels 8-9. The online versions on MSN Games use ActiveX and have a horrid experience. Did you forget how "keep things respectful" before using words like masochist? :-)
Not only that but again Windows 7 removes the ability to edit the game's shortcut in Games Explorer, so there you can see how MS throws away features after users start using them because they were just added in an earlier version.
Hey guys! Thanks for trying out the Windows 7 Beta, and the spirited feedback! ;-)
To try and address some concerns:
For most games today, updating is an often tedious process, where you have to visit and navigate through a web site just to see if any updates exist. We're trying to help reduce the hassle by providing an automatic way of checking for updates quickly and easily straight from your game library.
As for the news, ads and demos, I completely agree it's a user preference. Don't worry, you'll be able to remove any game providers that you don't want. I'd also like to point out that we're not trying to replace the Web experience for getting information about games, but on the contrary, to complement it with a handy way to stay on top of what's new, optionally browsing to items of interest. Think of how RSS feeds work for blogs and news.
As for removing features, we carefully study how our customers use our software, and try to act based on that input. The large majority of our customers don't customize game shortcuts, and for those that do, it's a one time only thing. In order to simplify Games Explorer, we left that option out, and instead left it as something that can be done manually.
Thanks again for the feedback, and check out our new post. We're looking forward to having you try out our new games!
"The games that have auto-update mechanisms don't need to be launched separately to be updated..they get updated whenever we play them."
How can you PLAY them without LAUNCHING them? My point exactly. If you don't play all your games all the time, some of them will be out of date. Not with this. And please give examples of games that automatically update in the BACKGROUND WHILE playing them? You're just blowing smoke now.
I don't know why you diss msn games. No wait, I do. You diss everything on this blog. :)
I also don't know why you care so much about what they use, ActiveX or otherwise, but if you dislike it so much, here: zone.msn.com/.../firefoxgames.htm
It's like this. When we launch the game, it updates and the next time, the updated version runs.
And the MSN Games experience is bad, because that's a web-based one, desktop experience is always better. Requires signing in every time, requires a Live ID, require installing ActiveX control for EACH GAME YOU PLAY.
I think I'd stop now. I don't want to get into a bashing party here with you. You seem to be an MS fanboy who cannot tolerate and coexist criticism at all and take it as prejudice.
Yup, it's like that. Just like I described. Much better to always keep all my games up to date regardless.
What's even more fascinating is that I just went to zone.msn.com/.../firefoxgames.htm and played a game of Bejeweled without signing in, using a Live ID, or installing ActiveX.
Ignorance < Fanboyism.
I rest my case.
Yeah but how many games are there on that Firefox page? 10 Games! Oh wow so much variety! </sarcasm?>
Uh... the title of the page is "Top *TEN* games to play on Firefox." How many did you expect? ELEVEN? That doesn't mean there are *ONLY* 10. There are tons more! Man... you're a piece of work.
One thing i am concerned about with is regards to the WEI rating and games explorer. If a computer is below average on for example hard drive and that knocks the entire system rating down, will you still be able to play games that would run on the system if it was for example running XP, which didnt have WEI or will having say a rating of 2.0 prevent you from funning a game where the minimum rating required is a 5.0? Reason i ask this is that when i originally installed the Windows 7 beta it was on a 80gb SATA drive which appeared to be 'capped' at 2.0 bringing the entire rating down to 2.0. Also a lot of games i have installed do not show up in games explorer and have to be dragged to that folder. Currently i use 1 500GB partition purely for games, i dont install them anywhere else, but yet were are about 18 different folders outside of the games folder in the start menu that were all relating to games. Including a microsoft games folder. Which had Rise of Lengends and Freelancer in there. There needs to be an easier way to combine folders in start menu than right clicking, select explore all users, opening that window, going into each folder to select the sub folders and then move them across to the games folder then delete the original folder locations.Then once that is done i seem to have to go and delete the folders again from the start menu. It doesnt seem to be that intuitive, and coming from XP where you could right click and modify in the start menu itself it seems a round about way of doing this. Anyway assuming send feedback is actually working i have sent feedback on this and a lot of other things so hopefully someone somewhere is looking at it ;)
Thanks for the feedback! To clarify, WEI ratings will never prevent you from playing a game. They're just a recommendation.
I was playing minesweeper and I got a game layout that was impossible to win.
Have a look at the picture here http://www.twitpic.com/1tj2y
In the top right corner the numbers are incorrect for that particular layout of mines.
Why did this happen?
Cool!!! I love it!!! But will games that work on XP or Vista work on 7 too?
Keanu: Our aim is for every single game that works in Windows Vista to work in Windows 7.
Let's hope the Games Explorer will recognize more games in the near future. If almost everything can be updated, why can't the list of recognized games be updated as well? Currently many popular titles are unrecognized and the users need to add them manually.
good games, there was also no longer load windows 7 play us, we would like to thank you for lighting
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