Windows Vista, just as previous Windows releases, ships with a range of pre-installed games. Users are undoubtedly familiar with such titles as Minesweeper, Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider Solitaire and Hearts. Windows Vista adds to these casual games such as Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans. However, even though these games ship as default components of the operating system, some users might notice that they are in fact missing or inaccessible. Microsoft explained that this scenario implied that the Inbox Games were not in fact fully installed on the platform. It is a situation that users of the Vista Business edition, for example, are more likely to come across, although other SKUs are not excluded from this. Resolving it is a matter of turning on Inbox Games.

“Users need to navigate to Start Menu, Control Panel, "Programs," and choose the "Turn Windows features on or off" option in the left hand side pane. “Turn off Games by clicking the box next to Games. This will remove the check from the box. Select "OK". Select Restart to reboot your system. From the Start Menu select Control Panel. In the Control Panel select "Programs". Next select "Turn Windows features on or off." Turn on Games by clicking the box next to Games. This will add the check to the box. Select "OK". Select "Restart" to reboot your system,” Microsoft explained.

Performing this task will ensure that Games will be available on the Vista machine. But it's not the only way to do it. Users can also turn to command prompt. Just type cmd in the search box under the Start menu, right click the selected result and choose Run as administrator. Enter the following command and hit Enter: Start /wait ocsetup InboxGames. “This will take several minutes to complete. Once the command is complete you will return to the command prompt. This command does not return a message. You will need to manually reboot the system to complete this method,” the Redmond company added.