Play games online: Best free game downloads and top time wasters

Playing thousands of free games, online games, and digital downloads is easy with the Windows operating system. From casual to social and massively multiplayer games, you can enjoy today’s best new titles and top online gaming sites.

The world’s top gaming platform, the Windows operating system (including the latest version, Windows 7) remains one of today’s best choices for computer games, from free online downloads to massively multiplayer virtual worlds.

Thanks to genre-defining Games for Windows titles, optimized for use with the free multiplayer online games service Games for Windows—LIVE, gamers have even more choices. Owners can also buy casual and bargain PC games online easily and affordably via Games for Windows Marketplace.

From car games to first-person shooters, Windows doesn’t just make it easier to install your favorite titles or to enjoy online computer gaming. It also offers instant access to today’s hottest advancements, including casual games, social games, and free-to-play outings.

Free online game sites

Thousands of games can be played or downloaded for free from web browsers likeInternet Explorer. Many can be enjoyed in just five minutes, making them perfect for coffee breaks. Others will keep you captivated for hours on end.

To start enjoying free sports games, action games, and more, including titles for both casual and hard-core gaming fans, just visit these sites:

• MSN Games
• Newgrounds
• Shockwave
• Kongregate
• AddictingGames
• Miniclip
• NinjaKiwi
• Candystand
• Pogo
• King

Access more than 100 free games now.

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Free massively multiplayer online games

Many virtual worlds and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games are completely free to play yet still compete with the best that retail games have to offer.

Several have optional in-game bonuses, power-ups, and items to buy if you want a time-saving boost, though value-minded shoppers needn’t spend a cent.

From fantasy to sci-fi, war, and even kids games, all offer a great way to play online alongside fellow gaming fans.

• The Lord of the Rings Online
• Champions Online
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
• Quick Hit Football
• Need for Speed World
• FreeRealms
• RuneScape
• Wizard 101
• Vindictus
• War Rock

Buy online games at the Microsoft Store.

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Top 10 social games

Playable on Facebook and other social networks, social games are free, intuitive, and accessible right from your web browser. One of gaming’s hottest new trends, they feature everyday topics from food to fashion, music, and art.

To get started playing, just create a social network account, sign in, and click some of these 10 top suggestions:

• FarmVille
• MMA Pro Fighter
• Ravenwood Fair
• Mafia Wars
• Restaurant City
• Happy Aquarium
• FIFA Superstars
• Millionaire City
• Pet Society
• Bejeweled Blitz

Play social games at the Microsoft Game Hub.

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Best casual games downloads

Countless casual games for all ages, including board games, puzzle games, card games, and more, can quickly be downloaded to your computer.

Smash hits like Mystery Case Files and Diner Dash typically cost less than U.S.$20 and can be tried free for 60 minutes. Monthly subscriptions to sites like Big Fish Gamesand discount deals from publishers like Sandlot Games and PopCap also allow you to purchase titles for as little as $6.99.

To try some of the hundreds of great casual game downloads available for both kids and adults, be sure to visit Games for Windows Marketplace. Five top suggestions include:

• Bejeweled 3
• Mahjong Wisdom
• Osmos
• Plants vs. Zombies
• Slingo Deluxe

Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server

The Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server provide connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server from PHP applications. In addition to some important bug fixes for the existing SQLSRV driver, version 2.0 release adds support for PDO with a new PDO_SQLSRV driver.

Quick details

Version:	2.0.1	Date Published:	6/16/2011
Language:	English

File Name	Size
SQLSRV20.EXE	790 KB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

The Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server are PHP 5 extensions that allows for the reading and writing of SQL Server data from within PHP scripts. The SQLSRV extension provides a procedural interface while the PDO_SQLSRV extension implements PDO for accessing data in all editions of SQL Server 2005 and later.

The major feature in the version 2.0 release is the support for PDO with a new PDO_SQLSRV driver. In order to support the new PDO_SQLSRV driver to be consistent with the existing SQLSRV driver, the code was re-architected into a core functional layer and an "API" layer above. The SQLSRV driver is built from this re-architected code, and also includes some important bug fixes. This release is available to all SQL Server users at no additional charge.

An update version (binary version 2.0.1802.200), released in November 2010 contains some critical fixes reported by our customers and developers. Please refer to the included SQLSRV_Readme file (or our blog) for additional details on the fixes.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

• PHP 5.2.4, or later. For more information about downloading and installing PHP, visit PHP on Windows.


• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client (available in the SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature Pack.


• Any edition of SQL Server 2005 or later.


• A Web server configured to run PHP.

Instructions

Perform the following steps to download and install the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server:

1. Download SQLSRV20.EXE to a temporary directory
2. Run SQLSRV20.EXE
3. When prompted, enter the path to the PHP extensions directory
4. After extracting the files, read the Installation section of the SQLSRV20_Readme.htm file for next steps

HealthVault Device Driver Development Package

Development kit contains documentation and sample drivers to help you build drivers for your health and fitness devices.

Quick details

Version:	1.0	Date Published:	7/18/2011
Language:	English

File Name	Size
HealthVaultDDP.zip	1.0 MB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

This kit contains various components intended to help development of a device driver for Microsoft Health Solutions. It is intended for use by HealthVault Partner software developers. The following is a general description of the contents:
•Code: Contains code for enabling HealthVault Partner devices to interact with the HealthVault ecosystem, such as the HealthVault Partner WPD driver.
• Docs: Contains general documentation for building WPD drivers for HealthVault Connection Center.
•Tools: Contains useful driver development tools, such as WpdInfo, which can be used to interact with and test WPD drivers.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Visual Studios 2005, 2008
Windows Driver Development Kit

Instructions

This device driver development kit requires that Visual Studio 2005 SP1 or Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Driver Development Kit in order for the sample drivers to compile.

Linux Integration Services Version 3.1 for Hyper-V

A set of drivers that enable synthetic device support in supported Linux virtual machines under Hyper-V.

Quick details

Version:	3.1	Date Published:	7/27/2011
Change Language:	Chinese (Hong Kong SAR)                                                                                Chinese (Simplified)                                                                                Chinese (Traditional)                                                                                English                                                                                French                                                                                German                                                                                Italian                                                                                Japanese                                                                                Korean                                                                                Portuguese (Brazil)                                                                                Russian

Files in this download

The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.

File Name	Size
Linux IC v3.0.iso	2.0 MB	DOWNLOAD
Linux Integration Services v3 Read Me.pdf	255 KB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

When installed in a supported Linux virtual machine running on Hyper-V, the Linux Integration Components provide.

Driver support: Linux Integration Services supports the network controller and the IDE and SCSI storage controllers that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.

Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices now take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.

Timesync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the virtualization server with the help of the pluggable time source device.

Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager by using the “Shut Down” command.

Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine.

Heartbeat: Allows the virtualization server to detect whether the virtual machine is running and responsive.

KVP (Key Value Pair) Exchange: Information about the running Linux virtual machine can be obtained by using the Key Value Pair exchange functionality on the Windows Server 2008 virtualization server.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V RTM Update (KB950050) applied

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RTM

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 RTM

Instructions

Refer to the PDF file for installation instructions.

Windows and Windows Server Developer Preview Compatibility Cookbook

This document familiarizes developers with how to verify the compatibility of their programs with the new operating system and provides an overview of the few known compatibility issues in Windows Developer Preview and Windows Server Developer Preview.

Quick details

Version:	1	Date Published:	9/13/2011
Language:	English

Files in this download

The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.

File Name	Size
Windows and Windows Server Developer Preview Compatibility Cookbook.docx	376 KB	DOWNLOAD
Windows and Windows Server Developer Preview Compatibility Cookbook.xps	1.0 MB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

This document builds on the concepts embodied in the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Application Compatibility Cookbook (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/bb757005.aspx) and the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Quality Cookbook (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/dd371778(v=VS.85).aspx). Like them, this document provides developers with the means to become familiar with how to verify the compatibility of their apps with the new operating system and provides an overview of the few known application incompatibility issues in Windows and Windows Server Developer Preview. The Cookbook contains more than two dozen topics divided into two major sections:

• General Compatibility
• New Features and Enhancements

We invite you to check out these topics to learn how to optimize your apps to take advantage of what this newest release of Windows has to offer.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7

Windows Developer Preview or Windows Server Developer Preview

Microsoft JDBC Driver 3.0 for SQL Server and SQL Azure

Download the SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0, a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and above. This version of SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0 adds support for SQL Azure.

Quick details

Version:	3.0	Date Published:	2/17/2011
Language:	English

Files in this download

The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.

File Name	Size
license_English.rtf	144 KB	DOWNLOAD
sqljdbc_3.0.1301.202_enu.exe	3.0 MB	DOWNLOAD
sqljdbc_3.0.1301.202_enu.tar.gz	2.0 MB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

In our continued commitment to interoperability, Microsoft has released a new Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver. The SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0 download is available to all SQL Server users at no additional charge, and provides access to SQL Azure, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000 from any Java application, application server, or Java-enabled applet. This is a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and above.

This release of the JDBC Driver is JDBC 4.0 compliant and runs on the Java Development Kit (JDK) version 5.0 or later. It has been tested against major application servers including IBM WebSphere, and SAP NetWeaver.

Note: By downloading the SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0, you are accepting the terms and conditions of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for this component. Please review the End-User License Agreement (EULA) located on this page and print a copy of the EULA for your records.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Linux, Unix, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

• Linux; Unix; Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows server 2008 R2;Windows Vista; Windows XP
• The list above is an example of some of the supported operating systems. The JDBC driver is designed to work on any operating system that supports the use of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). However, only Sun Solaris, SUSE Linux, and Windows XP or later operating systems have been tested.


• Java Development Kit: 5.0 or later


• SQL Azure or SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000

Instructions

Installation Instructions for the Microsoft Windows version of the JDBC Driver 

Note: By downloading the SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0, you are accepting the terms and conditions of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for this component. Please review the End-User License Agreement (EULA) located on this page and print a copy of the EULA for your records.

1. Download sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.exe to a temporary directory.

2. Run sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.exe.

3. Enter an installation directory when prompted. We recommend that you unpack this zip file in %ProgramFiles% with the default directory: "Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0".

4. After the package unpacks, open the JDBC Help System by opening %InstallationDirectory%\Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0\sqljdbc_<version>\<language>\help\default.htm. This will display the help system in your Web browser.

Installation Instructions for the UNIX version of the JDBC Driver 

1. Download sqljdbc_<version>_<language&.tar.gz to a temporary directory.

2. To unpack the zipped tar file, navigate to the directory where you want the driver unpacked and type gzip -d sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.tar.gz.

3. To unpack the tar file, move it to the directory where you want the driver installed and type tar –xf sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.tar. 

4. After the package unpacks, open the JDBC Help System by opening %InstallationDirectory%/Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0/sqljdbc_<version>/<language>/help/default.htm. This will display the help system in your default Web browser.

Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server CTP2

Download the Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server CTP, a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and above.

Quick details

Version:	4.0	Date Published:	7/12/2011
Language:	English

Files in this download

The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.

File Name	Size
license.txt	18 KB	DOWNLOAD
sqljdbc_4.0.1427.2_enu.exe	3.0 MB	DOWNLOAD
sqljdbc_4.0.1427.2_enu.tar.gz	2.0 MB	DOWNLOAD

Overview

In our continued commitment to interoperability, Microsoft has released the second community technical preview (CTP) of the new Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver. The Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server CTP2 download is available to all SQL Server users at no additional charge, and provides access to Microsoft® SQL Server® code-named 'Denali' CTP, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005 from any Java application, application server, or Java-enabled applet. This is a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and above.

This release of the JDBC Driver is JDBC 4.0 compliant and runs on the Java Development Kit (JDK) version 5.0 or later.

Note: By downloading the Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server CTP2, you are accepting the terms and conditions of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for this component. Please review the End-User License Agreement (EULA) located on this page and print a copy of the EULA for your records.

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System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Linux, Unix, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

• Supported Operating Systems:Linux;Unix;Windows 7;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Vista
• Linux; Unix; Windows 7; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Vista
• The list above is an example of some of the supported operating systems. The JDBC driver is designed to work on any operating system that supports the use of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). However, only Sun Solaris, SUSE Linux, and Windows operating systems have been tested.
• Java Development Kit: 5.0 or later
• Microsoft® SQL Server® code-named 'Denali' CTP or SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005

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Instructions

Installation Instructions for the Microsoft Windows version of the JDBC Driver

Note: By downloading the Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server CTP, you are accepting the terms and conditions of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for this component. Please review the End-User License Agreement (EULA) located on this page and print a copy of the EULA for your records.

1. Download Downloadsqljdbc_<version>_<language>.exe to a temporary directory.

2. Run sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.exe. 

3. Enter an installation directory when prompted. We recommend that you unpack this zip file in %ProgramFiles% with the default directory: "Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server".

4. After the package unpacks, open the JDBC Help System by opening %InstallationDirectory%\Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server\sqljdbc_<version>\<language>\help\default.htm. This will display the help system in your Web browser.

Installation Instructions for the UNIX version of the JDBC Driver 

1. Download sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.tar.gz to a temporary directory.

2. To unpack the zipped tar file, navigate to the directory where you want the driver unpacked and type gzip -d sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.tar.gz.

3. To unpack the tar file, move it to the directory where you want the driver installed and type tar –xf sqljdbc_<version>_<language>.tar.

4. After the package unpacks, open the JDBC Help System by opening %InstallationDirectory%/Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server/sqljdbc_<version>/<language>/help/default.htm. This will display the help system in your default Web browser.