Games and applications for Windows Live Messenger
There are various games and applications available in Windows Live Messenger that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your "buddy".
Games
Tic-Tac-Toe Classic
Tic-Tac-Toe is a game where you place your little toe on part of the board, which consists of a 3×3 grid. The aim of the game is to complete 3 squares in a row, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Solitaire Showdown
MSN Messenger versions 6 and onward contain this game (in the Games menu), based on the original Solitaire in Windows. It is online, 2 player, and features 2 decks (a triple deck, and a special 13-card pile). Each player must race to remove cards of the special 13-card pile, and put their cards on the shared piles/suit stacks (e.g. putting an ace of any suit on the pile, but putting 2's of a suit may only be possible after the ace of the suit is currently on the pile, not covered by any other cards). There are eight different suit stacks possible. Other differences between this and normal Solitaire are that not just Kings, but any card can be put on a blank row stack, and there are four black row stacks to put on instead of seven. The game ends if one player removes all cards of the 13-card pile, or when both players are "stuck" and cannot remove/put up any more cards, and manually end the game using the End Game button. This game is similar to the game nertz.
Scoring
Putting a card up on the suit stack gives 1 point, while removing a card from the 13-card pile (i.e. putting such a card on one of the row stacks) will give 2 points (hence it is also possible to get 3 points by directly putting a card from the 13-card pile on to the suit stacks).
Checkers
A standard two-player game of checkers.
Bejeweled
A two-player game where pairs of jewels on a playfield are switched to arrange three or more in a line of the same colour therefore removing them from the game. It is played in real time and individually, with scores being compared at the end.
Minesweeper Flags
In a twist on the original game, players must now locate flags and whoever has found the most by the end wins (i.e. the first person to get 26 or more mines wins). There are 51 mines on the map. If you find a flag you get to continue, otherwise it becomes your opponent's turn. Players get the one-off option to "bomb" a 5×5 area if they are losing, and get all the flags in that area (hence it is possible to get more than 26 mines).
Other Games
Other "Instant Games" include: Jewel Quest, Mahjong Quest, Quarto, Backgammon, 7 Hand Poker, Mah Jong Tiles, Polar Express Bejeweled, Cubis, Hexic, Mozaki Blocks, Sudoku Too, Uno and BrainBattle.
Third-party games
A number of additional third-party games have also been built using the Messenger Activity SDK. An overview of third party activities is available on gallery.live.com.
Applications
Whiteboard
Whiteboard opens up a program that looks like Microsoft Paint, but it is shared through two users. They can see what each other draws. This Whiteboard also supports different pages, to allow drawing across many different pages.(doesn't work on vista) See Whiteboarding.
Application Sharing
Application Sharing allows two computers to share an application over the network. This is usually a smaller application, as most computers cannot handle large programs on two systems at once.
Included Web Browser
Windows Live Messenger has included an Internet Explorer based web browser that can be started when using the Encarta robot.
Remote Assistance
(Windows XP and Vista only) Remote assistance opens up a program that allows two computers to connect together. At first it opens up a new conversation on both computers. The expert has an additional feature of viewing the desktop of the other person’s computer. One person (the expert) can "take control" of the other person's computer after the non-expert has accepted the "take control" command. This allows both people to have complete control over whoever's computer asked for assistance. At anytime the person's computer is being controlled, the connection can be terminated by pressing the Esc key on the keyboard. This is very useful when offering computer assistance to friends and family on other computers through MSN.