Free Solitaire Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the "Ad Wizard" and why does it keep appearing?

The Ad Wizard appears approximately every 30 calendar days to prompt you to connect to the Internet and allow Free Solitaire to update the advertisements. As part of the license for Free Solitaire, you are required to allow the Ad Wizard to successfully complete the ad updates.

The ad update is accomplished using simple HTTP transfers of image and text files. No executable files or scripts of any type are downloaded to your computer and no information is collected from your computer during the update process. For more details, see the Free Solitaire license (in the Help file) or visit the Goodsol Development privacy policy pages.

You are required to manually disconnect your system from the Internet (if appropriate) after the ad update is successfully completed.

Free Solitaire never connects to the Internet without your permission.

Why does the Ad Wizard continually ask me to update ads?

With Free Solitaire version 4.0, it was possible for a corrupted ad update to create incorrect files that are never replaced. This oversight is fixed in Free Solitaire version 4.01. Download and install the latest version 4.01 from the Download page. Please note that a couple of ad updates may be required to replace all previously "corrupted" ads. After the corrections, the Ad Wizard should not ask for an update for another 30 days as expected.

Why do I see error messages such as "parameter is incorrect" or "canvas does not allow drawing"?

Prior to version 4.0, Free Solitaire had a bug that manifested on a small percentage of computer systems. The bug is fixed in Free Solitaire 4.0 or later. Uninstall your current version of Free Solitaire, restart your computer, and download and install the latest Free Solitaire release from the download page.

What is "TsAdBot" and why does it run and/or crash on my system?

Previous versions of Free Solitaire used the Conducent Technologies ad delivery system (of which TsAdBot.exe was part). Conducent is now out of business, and the latest release of Free Solitaire no longer uses the system. Uninstall your current version of Free Solitaire, restart your computer, and download and install the latest Free Solitaire release from the download page.

When I try to play the game, all I get is a dialog telling me about "System Requirements".

Free Solitaire checks your video settings and verifies that you have adequate color depth and display area to play the game. Free Solitaire doesn't automatically adjust your video settings. Free Solitaire requires at least 800x600 display area to play all the games with the small card size. The large card size will require 1024x768 display area for some of the games.

To check and adjust your video settings, see the information at: http://www.goodsol.com/freesol/resolution.html

Why is the game free?

Free Solitaire is a promotional tool for Solitaire Plus and Goodsol Development and is supported by ad revenue. It was originally developed by Michael McCulloch for the purposes of learning how to use Borland Software Corporation's C++Builder, a cool RAD development tool for Windows.

Will the game remain free?

Yes. However, all improvements (other than bug fixes) and most new features will be sold as the shareware Solitaire Plus product.

How can I start a new game since there is no menu?

Use the right mouse button to click in a game window. You will see a pop-up menu appear that contains several menu selections including "New Game".

What's the difference between "New Game" and "Restart"?

A "New Game" shuffles and redeals the cards. A "Restart" will restore the initial deal of the cards (no shuffle) for the current game you are playing.

What does the "Game #" mean in the title bar?

Free Solitaire 4.0 and later use the same deals as Solitaire Plus. The game number indicates the hand which you are currently playing. Solitaire Plus allows you to actually specify the game number (rather than only display it) so you can duplicate the deals across different computers. If you experience any problem with Free Solitaire, it is helpful to us for you to record the game number in any correspondence.

How can I change the background color or card back to something else?

Click the right mouse button in a game window to get the pop-up menu. Then select "Preferences..." A panel will appear with various options including changing the card back and background color. You can use any BMP or JPEG image as a card back. Images that are scaled to about the size of the cards (70 x 115 pixels) will look best. High-color or better color depth is required to use the custom card backs.

Where are the rules for the games?

Click the right mouse button to get the pop-up menu in a game window. Then select "Rules". Here are two great books available at your local bookstore if you are really an addict:

The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games by Albert H. Morehead & Geoffrey Mott-Smith; Bantam Books.
Teach Yourself Card Games for One by David Parlett; NTC Publishing Group.

Sometimes the cards seem to "jump" to places automatically. Why is this happening?

Free Solitaire implements a "smart-dragging" feature which attempts to guess where the card should go without requiring you to drag the cards over a specific location. The smart dragging can be disabled in the "Other" tab of the Preferences panel. However, you are encouraged to read the smart-dragging topic included in the Help file which describes in detail how the feature works. Most users who understand the smart-dragging behavior find it very helpful.

Why doesn't the right mouse button click move a card to a foundation?

The right mouse button is reserved for the context sensitive pop-up menu. A double-click with the left mouse button, or a single left mouse button click with the Shift or Ctrl key pressed will move a card to a foundation if possible.

Why don't the cards automatically move to the foundations?

The autoplay feature is activated by clicking with the right mouse button in each game window and selecting the "Autoplay" menu item (it is disabled by default when you first install the game). The feature is enabled if the menu item is checked. The autoplay feature may be enabled and disabled at will during a game, which is sometimes desirable if the default autoplay action is not what you would prefer to happen. You can also use the undo feature to back up from one or more autoplays.

When I try to run the game, I get a "Dispatcher Initialization Error".

This is a known problem with a 3rd-party runtime compressor (Shrinker from Blink, Inc.). The error is fixed in the compressor used to create the latest Free Solitaire release. Please see the download page for the latest.

The game is compressed by about 60% using the Shrinker product.

How do I uninstall the game?

The latest version of Free Solitaire includes an uninstall shortcut in the Start menu under "Free Solitaire".

All versions of Free Solitaire can be uninstalled by selecting the Add/Remove Programs dialog from the Control Panel. Find "Free Solitaire" in the list, select it, and press the Remove button. When prompted, select the "Automatic" option and continue.

I installed a previous version of Free Solitaire that used the Conducent ad system. How do I remove the Conducent files from my computer?

The easiest method for removing the Conducent files is to uninstall Free Solitaire using the Add/Remove Programs dialog in the Control Panel as described in the above paragraph. Also, the installer for Free Solitaire 4.0 attempts to run the uninstall for the Conducent system if you installed a previous version of Free Solitaire to the default location of \Program Files\FreeSolitaire.

If the automatic uninstall fails, or if you want to manually verify the Conducent files are gone, the following are detailed instructions for doing so. Please note that these directions involve manipulating the registry. Goodsol assumes no responsibility for damage that may occur to your system configuration by manually editing your registry.

To manually uninstall Free Solitaire 3.02 and 3.03, along with the Conducent ad system:

1. Delete the "C:\Program Files\FreeSolitaire" folder along with all contents.

2. Delete the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Free Solitaire" key from the Registry (using "regedit" or other tool) to remove the line from your Add/Remove Programs panel.

Complete the following steps only if you have no other advertisement-supported software installed that used the Conducent system. Otherwise, it will break the other ad-supported apps that used the Conducent ad delivery system (which is now actually defunct). Also, if the original install did not complete, then some of the files and/or registry settings may not have been installed.

3. Remove tsad.dll from C:\WinNT or C:\Windows.

4. Remove vcpdll.dll from C:\WinNT or C:\Windows.

5. Remove FlexActv.dll from C:\WinNT or C:\Windows.

6. Remove the C:\Program Files\TimeSink folder.

7. Remove the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\TimeSink registry keys.

8. Remove the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TimeSink registry keys.

9. Remove any TsAdBot entry(s) from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Current Version\Run.

10. Remove any HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Current Version\Shareddlls string values for FlexActv, tsad.dll, vcpdll.dll, and tsadbot.exe.

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