# Life after the latest MS upgrade, please help. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192 "2018-01-09T01:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/1 "2018-01-09T01:46:20Z")
MS upgraded my win-10 system three times last week (presumably related to Meltdown and Spectre) and the win-7 games that I had installed no longer work. When I click on the link I created on my desktop, the program is gone. From Properties, I learn that the pointer to FreeCell, say, is c:\program files\microsoft games\freecell\freecell.exe. When I tried to look in that location, what I found was c:\program files\microsoft games\freecell\en-us\freecell.exe.mui. By googling, I discover that .mui means multi-lingual interface. When I tried to open it, it asked what it should open it with. What is going on here and what should I do? Any help appreciated. MS really works hard to make life difficult, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/2 "2018-01-09T02:13:55Z")
Just to try to do an end run around things, check in your Downloads folder to see if you still have the installer file for Freecell, and try running that again if it’s there. Otherwise, one of the updates may have hidden the file type you’re looking for and you may have to dig around to get permission to see files of that type; search in the Start menu for hidden, or file type, to see if there’s any help there. You may need to go to the site you downloaded from in the first place to see if you can get another download without having to pay for it a second time. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/3 "2018-01-09T03:28:22Z")
I had terrible times after the last update. [You can roll back the update and use all the advice in my thread about that topic.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=846142) ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/4 "2018-01-09T03:33:00Z")
try looking in the “program files (86)\microsoft games…” folder. That’s where windows stores the 32-bit programs (which is most of them, including even some modern Microsoft stuff). Also, go into folder options and **temporarily** turn on the option for ‘show hidden files, folders, and drives’, and turn off ‘hide extensions for known file types’, and ‘hide protected operating system files’. After you’ve found freecell.exe change them back so you don’t accidentally mess up any important files. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/5 "2018-01-09T03:35:14Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I had terrible times after the last update. [You can roll back the update and use all the advice in my thread about that topic.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=846142) I would recommend rolling back a major security update just so one can play freecell… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/6 "2018-01-09T03:38:14Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I would recommend rolling back a major security update just so one can play freecell… I think that if you follow all the directions in that thread, you can eventually get the security updates without the “windows upgrade” part. I’m not sure which part is messing with our OP, though. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/7 "2018-01-09T04:17:52Z")
Don’t forget [Windows 7 games for Windows 10 Anniversary Update and above](https://winaero.com/blog/windows-7-games-for-windows-10-anniversary-update-and-above/) ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/8 "2018-01-09T14:55:53Z")
Same thing happened to me. I just reinstalled from [winaero.com](http://winaero.com) and it works again. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/9 "2018-01-09T19:12:33Z")
> [@Turble](#): > > Same thing happened to me. I just reinstalled from [winaero.com](http://winaero.com) and it works again. So what was that all about? I just did the same (actually reinstalled the zip file I still had and everything works again). What is ms doing this for? (rhetorical Q) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-after-the-latest-ms-upgrade-please-help/806192/10 "2018-01-09T20:17:43Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > So what was that all about? I just did the same (actually reinstalled the zip file I still had and everything works again). What is ms doing this for? (rhetorical Q) I would speculate that since they offer an “official” updated version of the game on the Windows store, they want you installing and using that one. They have business expectations (and ego) wrapped up in the success of the Microsoft App Store; also, as much as possible, they want people using the new-style [UWP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Windows_Platform_apps) apps rather than good ol’ fashioned Windows executables, for reasons. They can’t do that with business users, and apps business users need, but games? Easy target. Many businesses don’t even allow games on corporate PCs, so erasing games they gave away for free and only making them available in the UWP app store is low-hanging fruit to increase app store penetration.