Missing 'Windows' games

Hope this forum is the correct place to ask this question -
Recently one of the family went into turn off 'Messenger' in windows default programmes & inadvertently unchecked 'Games' in Accessories' I rechecked them, but now the games which were on my start up, & on my desk top - i.e 'Hearts' 'Spider' & Solitaire' & others are missing. In the start up programes the games box is empty other than online games. It seems they are still on here somewhere but I can no longer access them. This is on a laptop running with Windows XP. Hope this is explained so you can understand my query. Thanks for any help.

 

You can do a search for them on you HD, just put in the term Hearts, Spider, whatever you want to find.

When your search finds say Spider Solitaire, right click on the program and then send to desktop, create shortcut.

I don't know why they don't appear in the start menu, though.

 

Thanks, No I can't figure why they have disappeared either ! Will try as you suggest. Will get back to you when I find them

 

Hi again,
Thanks for your input into my missing games. I tried as you suggested, but didn't find missing games. I then searched again on here & found a post from 2-3 years ago ! It said - 'Open access programs & defaults ( which is where I had been trying to restore from ) But !.. said to - uncheck the games box, run wizard, go back - recheck the box - run wizard again. I have done this & have finally restored my missing games plus calculator & all others connected to this default program, which were also missing. I thought as you tried to help me you may want to know that this worked for me & if any others inquire concerning similar problems you may beable to pass on this info, as I don't always get to read many queries I am more on here to have a problem solved ... LOL Thanks anyway ( sorry can't find person on here again who gave this info, but thanks to them very much !! )

 

Thanks so much for posting the method of reactivating Games. (What would we do without our games????) I once accidentally deleted all of my games from XP. Here's what I had to do to reinstall them -- and luckily I still had my installation CD:

Insert Microsoft Office XP CD
Pick option #2
Highlight Accessories and Games
Click Details
Highlight Games (click once)
Click Details
If Games is checked, uncheck it and click ok, deleting the games
Then reinstall Games by going back into Accessories and Games and rechecking Games and installing it.

PS If you're a solitaire lover, here's a great free site where you can play tons of solitaire games on line, and it's totally safe: http://www.idiotsdelight.net/index.html

 

Yes, was easy this way thankgoodness, as I don't have my XP CD unfortunately
Thanks too for the Solitaire site info, do love my games at times, when I want to chill out for while.