When starting a game of Freecell the cards are dealt but only the top card in each column is visible. If I move the cursor over the card columns the pointer changes from an arrowhead to an hourglass, and will not allow me to move and drag the top cards. Reinstalling the Windows Games does not fix the problem, neither does restoring the FREECELL.EXE file from a backup (which was made before the problem occurred). Interestingly, I did experience this problem last year but the issue resolved itself without any apparent action on my part. All the other Windows Games work correctly. I have tried downloading other versions of Freecell, but they all have limitations so I would prefer to use Windows Freecell. The computer is running Windows 98 SE.

Since restoring FREECELL.EXE from your backup (made prior to the problem occurring) did not fix the issue, we can rule out the problem being with the program itself. From the information I have read online about Freecell, a majority of the problems are caused by something running in the background which is interfering/conflicting with Freecell. Therefore, our first test will involve closing all non-essential programs running in the Windows background, to check for any conflicts.

Make sure your computer is disconnected from the internet before attempting this procedure (since we may close firewall and/or antivirus software running on the computer). Firstly, close any running programs, including those running in the system tray. Once you have closed all the visible programs you have been able to close, we need to close other processes (running in the background) which are not visible. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and the Task Manager window should appear. This will list any running background processes on your computer. Close all non-essential processes, by highlighting the process name and click ‘End Task’. You should be able to close all processes except ‘explorer’ and ’systray’. Once all non-essential processes have been closed, try running Freecell. If you are able to run Freecell without problem, it appears the issue is caused by something running in the background which is conflicting with Freecell. Should this be the case, you will need to track down the application causing the problem. This can be done through a process of elimination. Restart the computer and this will restart all the processes. Then, you will need to close any open visible applications one-by-one, each time restarting Freecell to check whether it works correctly. Once all open applications are closed, use CTRL-ALT-DEL to start closing background processes. Once the problem stops, the most recently closed application/process is the one causing the problem.

If you find the problem application/process and wish to identify it’s function, a useful resource is www.processlibrary.com, which allows you to search for processes and it will return an explanation of those processes (assuming they are in the Process Library database).