XP GAMES CHEATS

  XP GAMES CHEATS

Pinball’s “hidden test”

As most know, pinball was a program included in later versions of Windows NT, namely Windows 2000 and Windows XP as per a software deal between Microsoft and the authors of the pinball game in question. But many don’t know about the hidden ability to control the pinball via the mouse the game includes, accessible by typing “hidden test” (including the actual space and quotes) after starting a game.

Upon typing the phrase, you can control the pinball directly via the mouse and push your high score waaaay over that of your friends, without even editing any data files!

Solitaire/Spider Solitaire:

Pressing alt+shift+2 will instantly beat any game, causing the cards to flow and all just as if you’ve played the game all the way through. Fun to show off for your friends with!

FreeCell:

control+shift+F10 will prompt you to either “abort, retry, or fail” (an MS-DOS error reference by FreeCell programmer Jim Horne), and clicking abort followed by making another move will instantly win any game for you, even the unsolvable games -1, -2, and 11982 (selectable via the game menu or F3).

Minesweeper:

Not an instant-win shortcut, but just as good: This only worked on expert mode for us, but whenever in a game, type “xyzzy” (without the quotes) and press the left shift key (if it doesn’t work, try the right key). After doing this, click on your desktop (without hitting an icon) and click F5 to refresh it.

The very top-left pixel of your screen (hard to see) will now be white, and will turn black whenever your mouse hovers over a button concealing a mine within the minesweeper game. The F5 keystroke is needed to refresh your desktop to reveal the newly-added pixel, and is required on NT-based Windows versions (and probably 98 and 95) due to Active Desktop being added on as a feature.

ENJOY!!