Game Cheats & Tricks for Minesweeper in Windows 7

One of the simplest, most absorbing games ever created — and a longtime personal favorite of Bill Gates — Minesweeper has been around since the days of Windows 3.1. Yet, most people don’t know that there are game cheats available to help them win at Minesweeper in Windows 7.

The concept is simple: Click a square and a number appears, indicating the number of adjacent squares that contain mines. Click a square that contains a mine and you lose. You can choose three different levels of play or you can tell Minesweeper how many squares you want to see and how many mines should be scattered on the field. In Minesweeper, you play against the clock.

The Intermediate Minesweeper playing field.

There are a number of tips and cheats you can use with Minesweeper:

• You can change the minefield into a pleasant flower garden by choosing Game→Change Appearance.
• Since you’re playing against the clock, a handy trick lets you “stop the clock” while deciding where to click next. To stop the clock, minimize the Minesweeper window. Then do the “3D flip” by holding down the Windows key and pressing Tab repeatedly until the Minesweeper window is on top. The clock will stay locked while you examine your choices. Just click the Minesweeper button on the Windows taskbar or releasing the Windows key to go back to game play.
• If you think there might be a mine in a box, right-double-click to stick a question mark on the box to remind you to watch out for that box.
• Minesweeper cheats in your favor. Minesweeper always arranges things so that you never hit a mine on your first click (unless you choose to restart a game, in which case the mines appear in the same location as in the previous game).
• Minesweeper also allows you to replay a game. So, since you already know where the mines are you should be able to rack up quite a speed record on solving the game.

Now let the cheating commence. There is one sure-fire way to win at Minesweeper. You can use an indicator switch to have Windows tell you where the mines are hidden.

1. Open Microsoft Minesweeper.
2. Type xyzzy. Press Enter+Shift.
3. Minimize all other windows on your desktop.
   Your desktop needs to be some color other than black for this to work.
4. Slowly move your mouse cursor over each of the squares in Minesweeper while watching the first pixel on the top left portion of the screen.
   Notice how that the first pixel occasionally changes to black?
5. When the pixel turns black, right-click the square to plant a flag and disable the mine.
   This is a single pixel, which means it is tiny. It’s safe to click anywhere that the pixel remains white.