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points by anticorporate 3 days ago | 0 comments

One crucial part of my role as my family's de facto IT support was making sure my mom's FreeCell score record (which was just a Windows registry value) made it from each computer to the next across countless upgrades. She hated the new version that came out somewhere along the way because the card decks changed. (Windows 7? Windows 10? I switched to Linux full time in the XP era so my memory is a little fuzzy.) So I made sure to keep a backup of the Win32 version she was used to, and loaded it onto every machine she ever owned. It wasn't quite the 33 years of its lifetime, but probably close to 30.

Mom passed earlier this year, so the FreeCell score record won't ever increment again, but I still made a point to back it up one last time when going through her desktop this summer.

[–] johnwalkr 3 days ago

Sorry for the loss, are you able to keep her high score saved too?

I wanted old school MS solitaire in windows 11 since the modern version has ads and extra useless features. I found that the Windows XP version works without hassle. Earlier versions aren't really different but I forget if I tried to run earlier versions. One quirk: however the winning animation is programmed, it takes almost 20 minutes to complete on a very wide monitor[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78z2zlwV-XQ

[–] strotter 3 days ago

If you want to scratch your old-school solitaire itch, check out https://freesolitaire.win

[–] solyin 3 days ago

it was fun until the end which was a temu ad. Before that there was an emoji that said end automatically, which was no fun. and then there was no cool card shuffling at the end.

Don't visit the link, unless you like feeling let down.

[–] throwaway270925 2 days ago

Better use

https://cards.jlogical.com/

Its way nicer and open source:

https://github.com/JLogical-Apps/cards

[–] NooneAtAll5 2 days ago

very bad performance :/

[–] merelysounds 2 days ago

Note, this is not FreeCell[1], it is Klondike.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCell

[–] NooneAtAll5 2 days ago

wrong solitaire

[–] mapt 2 days ago

> I wanted old school MS solitaire in windows 11 since the modern version has ads and extra useless features.

> All LG televisions are maintaining a dossier on you and transcribing everything you watch and everything spoken within earshot

These things seem like something we should be responding to with such an extreme disgust response that it's denominated in drone strikes.

Like having a shower liner installed that comes with A Guy With A Peephole who permanently lives in your bathroom now, and that's just something people tolerate. "Switch to tile if you don't like it", they say. No. Sometimes the appropriate response to audacity is to choose violence. It is an implied deterrent against sufficiently offensive antifeatures that nobody has bothered banning them. I shouldn't have to specify that I don't want it, the operating system is just not supposed to be in the business of pushing ads on me, the television is not supposed to be in the business of wiretapping me. These would have been banned long ago if they were known and if we had a functional government.

That guy living in the shower liner is getting disassembled with a Sawzall with extreme prejudice, and frankly that is not sufficient.

[–] poglet 3 days ago

> are you able to keep her high score saved too?

The score is a value stored in the Windows registry, the poster probably re-created (or imported from a previous export) the registry entry upon each Windows installation.

[–] layer8 3 days ago

I’m still installing the classic (Windows 7) calculator [0] on each new Windows setup.

[0] https://win7games.com/#calc

[–] onraglanroad 2 days ago

One of the first proper jobs I had, I ended up doing unofficial support for the Windows 3.1 machines that they had. I can't remember exactly what I had to do, probably just cleaning temp dirs or something, but I got regularly called to one of my friend's machines.

He liked to play minesweeper and I found that the high scores were just stored in minesweeper.ini or something. I didn't know very much about computers at the time but I could manage that [1].

So, whenever I was on his machine I would edit the file and add my own name with a score that was one second quicker than his.

He got some really good times so I feel it was definitely an encouragement to excellence!

[1] When I was in my 20s I was immortal and knew everything. Now I'm in my 50s, with decades of experience, I am very much mortal and know practically nothing. Strange how life turns out.

[–] byte_0 3 days ago

My condolences. Such a nice way to honor her memory with one more backup.

[–] vitaflo 3 days ago

I’m sorry for your loss. That is a wonderful story.

[–] queenkjuul 3 days ago

She was right, the modern freecell sucks

[–] zoeysmithe 3 days ago

I'm so sorry for your loss, but now you have to tell us her high score!

[–] valeena 3 days ago

Thank you for sharing this. It was heartwarming to read!

[–] pbrum 2 days ago

This is what posting is all about

[–] b3lvedere 1 day ago

I am so sorry for your loss.

[–] jamesbfb 2 days ago

Bless. You’re a good egg.

[–] enlyth 3 days ago