Windows 7 Games

[enjay]

XP Pro had solitaire and such like, and these are in Windows 7 Home but not Windows 7 Pro - any reason I can't copy them off a Win7Home PC onto our Win7Pro network? We have an EES, so I do have licences for Win7Home if that is the sticking point.

[sted]

they are there just not installed by default

 

run the following batch file to enable them ive added it as a stratup script before now

REM --- Check for an existing installation of ms games
if exist "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FreeCell\freecell.exe" goto _End
REM --- Deploy to Windows 7
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:InboxGames
REM --- End of the script
:_End

[Arthur]

If you want to install the games as part of your Windows installs, you can do this by using an Unattend.xml or AutoUnattend.xml file.

 

[Michael]

Microsoft finally understood that employers don't want their employees playing Solitaire instead of working!

 

As well as the scripts above, you can re-enable them through Programs and Features in Control Panel.

 

For years I was always removing the likes of Solitaire, Outlook Express and Windows Messenger from newly installed XP Pro images!

[enjay]

Microsoft finally understood that employers don't want their employees playing Solitaire instead of working!

That is up to each employer, surely. If one of our staff members wants to sit at their desk at lunchtime and play Solitaire, I don't have a problem with that. We permit them other recreational use of the computers and Internet, so why not give them the games?

 

I'll give the scripts a try...

[sted]

That is up to each employer, surely. If one of our staff members wants to sit at their desk at lunchtime and play Solitaire, I don't have a problem with that. We permit them other recreational use of the computers and Internet, so why not give them the games?

 

I'll give the scripts a try...

fair enough but does games on need to be the default rather than an option?

[enjay]

fair enough but does games on need to be the default rather than an option?

Why not? If they are there, people can use them or not as they wish; if they are not there, they have to ask for them and that then generates work for me (which I don't really want for something like this!).

[sted]

Why not? If they are there, people can use them or not as they wish; if they are not there, they have to ask for them and that then generates work for me (which I don't really want for something like this!).

by the same token it can generate work by being asked to remove, them you cant win wither way

[enjay]

Sorry, why would I get asked to remove them?

[X-13]

by the same token it can generate work by being asked to remove, them you cant win wither way

 

If they're installed and not wanted, you can just ignore it. Why make more work when it's not needed.

[sted]

Sorry, why would I get asked to remove them?

same reason our asked to remove any software someone dosent want people having access to it for whatever reason

[enjay]

same reason our asked to remove any software someone dosent want people having access to it for whatever reason

Okay, but you're missing the fundamental point that, at this school, Windows games don't fall into the category of "stuff we don't want people having access to". Your school doesn't permit them, and that is your choice; we do, and that is our choice.

[Michael]

Just to clarify, games are available by default on Windows 7 Home Premium but not Windows 7 Professional. Clearly Microsoft introduce changes to please the majority of customers. They've still allowed Windows 7 Professional users to re-enable games if required.

 

It's fair to say the majority of employers wouldn't want their employees to play games. Most people these days typically look at the news or Facebook anyway, but deploying Windows 7, it's one less job for myself who used to remove games when starting new images for corporate/education clients.

[SYNACK]

Okay, but you're missing the fundamental point that, at this school, Windows games don't fall into the category of "stuff we don't want people having access to". Your school doesn't permit them, and that is your choice; we do, and that is our choice.

 

And you're missing the point that Microsoft does not make Windows 7 Pro specificly for your school but rather businesses in general, as such it is more likely that they would be a non-default feature. As to more work its a case of five clicks on your base image or tacking in a script like the above to group policy which is hardly extreme labor. Besides why are you using pro under EES, you have access to enterprise that gives you bitlocker and has some better defaults for organisations - games are still disabled by default though .

[enjay]

This is becoming so much harder than it needed to be. I understand why games might have been disabled - both by MS and your schools - I just wanted to know if/how I could re-enable them. This was answered some time ago with the scripts, so my thanks to those people.

 

As to why we're using Pro not Enterprise, I'm not actually sure to be honest! That was how the company who assisted with our migration did it. Other than BitLocker (which is only any good if users also have Enterprise at home, surely?), what else am I missing out on?

[SYNACK]

Its more useful for the full disk encryption for laptops and such, anything above Vista on the home client side will allow read/write of bitlocker encrypted USB. The main stuff that enterprise helps with is stuff like KMS that is set to look for a KMS server right out of the box.

 

The list is here:

Compare Windows - Microsoft Windows

 

Mainly enterprise features like boot from VHD, Applocker (can be useful), directaccess, branchcache and optimisations for running it as a VDI OS in a virtual environment. It just gives you access to all the higher end stuff its very close to the Ultimate edition.

 

Microsoft Windows Enterprise | Windows 7 Features

 

Overall if you have it free anyway it makes sence to have it avalible just in case you end up using one or more of the features.

[enjay]

Thanks Synack. I don't re-image enough computers to make having them hunt out a KMS server important. The full-disk encryption could be helpful though; I've used TrueCrypt in the past, but that only encrypts the C: drive not a D: partition on the same disk.

[enjay]

Thanks @sted - your script worked a treat.