Check out what the real purpose of games like Windows Solitaire is

The native games of Windows are present in almost all versions of the system, from 3.0. They're not just there to slow your productivity — or help you pass the time at boring work, depending on your point of view.

The real purpose of ecosystem when included the Patience in Windows 3.0 in 1990 was to make the friendlier mouse for the user. At that time, the most common were computers with command lines. Despite Apple introducing the mouse, the ability to drag and drop interface elements was unfamiliar.

And that's exactly what the game was doing, teaching people in a silent way how the interface worked. Microsoft did not stop there and in version 3.1 of Windows introduced the Minefield with a similar objective: to make the different actions between the right and left mouse buttons clearer.

In 1992 the company launched the Windows for Workgroups 3.1, the first network-ready version. They also used a game to demonstrate the capabilities of NetDDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) technology. This time the Glasses was responsible, as it allowed communication with other players on a local network.

Finally came the FreeCell, which was released in “Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 2”. The goal this time was a little more technical: testing 32-bit software on Windows 3.1, which was still 16-bit.

This way, the ecosystem managed to get people interested in and learning about the features of the operating system. Today all these tasks seem quite simple to us.

O Windows 8 came without games, anyone who wanted could download the Solitaire and Minesweeper collection separately, but it was necessary to pay to play without the display of commercials. O Patience is natively back to Windows 10. The user who searches for the other games in the search bar, will see the results of the Windows Store, where you can download them.

As suggested by the Mental Floss, this can be a smart way to familiarize users with the app store.