How to Play Freecell

For the sake of showing you how the game is played, I will walk you through the beginning of one specific game. So open Freecell, and click "Game" and "Select Game". Type in number 21260. Now what you should see is eight rows of random-looking cards below two sets of four rectangles.

The set of rectangles on the right side of the screen is where you want to end up putting all your cards. These rectangles are called "homecells." Each cell will be assigned it's own suit. For example, you'll notice an ace of hearts on the bottom of the first row of cards. You'll also notice a two of hearts in the bottom of the seventh row. Go ahead and double click the ace. See how both it and two flew up to the first place homecell? Now the three of hearts will go on top of the two of hearts, so go ahead and click the three and then click the two. What you just did was move the three from the bottom rows of cards up to it's permanent place. Now the four of hearts will go there, and et cetera until the King of hearts is right on top. This is what the objective of the game is - getting all of the cards into their proper place.

The four cells on the left side are place holders. They are called freecells. When you need to get something out of the way, move it up there. For example, notice the Ace stuck behind the Queen of Clubs. In order to move that card there needs to be an available King of either Hearts of Diamonds, since cards stack up Solitaire-style in the bottom rows. Since there is no red king available, you'll need to click the Queen and place it in one of the freecells. See how the Ace of Diamonds flys up to it's homecell?

Now you've got the general idea of how the game is played, and you can keep messing around until you've developed your own little strategies. Each game is varying in difficulty so certain tricks you pick up may not work for every game you play.

Remember: unless you're playing on Windows Vista, the screen will flash when you have only one remaining move.

- There are eight unsolvable games on the Windows Freecell package: game numbers 11,982, 146,692, 186,216, 455,889, 495,505, 512,118, 517,776, and 781,948. So don't beat yourself up if you can't seem to beat these games. ;)

- Various versions of Freecell were developed around the early 70's but the game remained relatively unheard of until it was included in Windows 95. Since then, it has been included in every Windows.

- Before Windows XP, there was only 32,000 deals available for the game.

- If you're stuck, there is an index that you can use to find solutions for a lot of the deals.