How to Play Minesweeper, Explained

Minesweeper is, without a doubt, one of THE legendary stock games of Microsoft Windows, along with Solitaire, Hearts, FreeCell, and 3D Pinball. However, it seems that it’s not available on newer versions of Windows. If you are wondering how you can download and play the good old classic Minesweeper, look no further, I’ll guide you through everything you need to know about how to play Minesweeper on Windows 8, 10, and 11.

Where to Find and Download Old Classic Minesweeper

You will notice that Minesweeper is absent on modern versions of Windows. This is because Microsoft decided to have a modern Minesweeper developed by Arkadium. It is available on Microsoft Store for you to download. But… It doesn’t have the soul of the original Minesweeper, and it’s riddled with annoying ads that you can skip after around half a minute, so we’re not gonna do that.

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If you are keen on getting your Minesweeper through Microsoft Store, there is a third-party remake of the Windows XP Minesweeper dubbed “Minesweeper Classic”. It works perfectly fine.

Web-based variants exist as well, so let’s list a few that I have found:

• Minesweeper.online is probably the best in my opinion. It also has many cool features.
• Minesweeperonline.com is another version of Minesweeper that you can play from.
• Google also has its own web version of the Minesweeper if you want to check it out.

Now that I have shown you where and how you can play Minesweeper for free, here are the rules, in case you were not familiar with them.

What Are the Rules of Minesweeper?

The point of Minesweeper is to locate all of the Mines on the board, without clicking on any of them. The controls are fairly simple:

• The left mouse click is used to reveal the tile. Under the tile, you will either find a number, empty space, or a mine. A number reveals how many mines are located in the eight tiles that surround it. Zero leads to an empty space which will reveal a lot of the field for you most of the time. Mine leads to a lost game.
• The right mouse click is used to mark the tile with a red flag, which prevents you from accidentally clicking on it. This is used to mark the mine. The question mark, which you get after using the right click again, is used to mark a “potential” mine.
• The middle mouse click is used for “testing” the minefield. You click a revealed number with it, and then all adjacent tiles will look like they are being pressed. In case it’s obvious that one of those surrounding tiles is without a mine, it will be revealed (good to use when you think you may be missing something).
  • (fun fact: back in the day, most of the mice had only two clicks. The scroll wheel didn’t exist. Sometimes, the middle mouse click existed, as a button, but for those that didn’t have it, the “double click” was the option. Yes. I am that old.)

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How to Know Where To Click in Minesweeper?

Minesweeper is, in hindsight, a simple game. But only once you master its theory. Sometimes, you will have a 50/50 gamble that you’ll have to take. There are a lot of things to learn on Minesweeper.online about Patterns and Efficiency that I will wholeheartedly recommend. After all, it might be like learning how to master the Rubik’s Cube.

That’s all we have for you regarding Minesweeper. We hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to check out our website for more fun reads, such as Diablo 4 Microtransactions are Way Too Expensive and The Outlast Trials Early Access Impressions | Trial Version of the Trials.