I used to play games on W7 a lot whilst waiting for a download or some other to complete.
and was upset (not the strongest word I would choose) when I found they had been removed.
After a number of searches I found this solution.
From a working Windows 7 x86 copy the games folder from your program folder
copy cardgames.dll from windows/system32
and put the games folder in W8 program files (x86). Even if on a 64 bit system.
Now put a copy of cardgames.dll in each sub-folder ie hearts, solitaire etc.
Then because you would manually have to edit a number of system files and programs
Tito@MDL created a small patcher to edit the files concerned.
this is attached ; Run the patch browse to the games executable say hearts.exe in the
program files (x86) then click patch. Repeat for each game you wish to patch.
Note ignore any virus warnings they are false positives but coming up because your editing a program exe.
Why do we have to keep finding a way to restore everything MS is removing from W8
Tito@mdl (MDL=My Digital Life) is the guy who produced the patcher which is basically a batch file script.
the script does edit a number of system files to enable w8 to run the modified games.
As I stated in my first post most good virus detectors will pick it up as an external program which edits programs and system files
this very much a NONO and should be flagged as malware.
If you do not want to run it you don't have to, it can be done by hand editing the registry and other files.
Just google the problem and you find the various actions you have to take; the patcher makes life easier
I used the patcher and have checked the various games I migrated and both the MS defender 2 and avast are happy with the end result. But it entirely up to you.