Hearts

Hearts, also known as Microsoft Hearts, and The Microsoft Hearts Network prior to Windows XP, is a computer game included with Microsoft Windows, based on a card game with the same name. It was first introduced in Windows 3.1 in 1992, and was included in every version of Windows up to Windows 7. Despite the name, the game rules correspond to those of Black Lady in which the queen of spades is a penalty card, in addition to the cards of the heart suit that are the only penalty cards in the traditional card game of Hearts. An online version, named Internet Hearts was included in Me and XP. History Hearts was first included in Windows with Windows for Workgroups 3.1, Microsoft's first "network-ready" version of Windows, released in 1992, which included a new networking technology that Microsoft called NetDDE. Microsoft used Hearts to showcase the new NetDDE technology by enabling multiple players to play simultaneously across a computer network. This legacy could be seen in the original title bar name for the program, "The Microsoft Hearts Network" (although network play was removed in the Windows XP version). Hearts continued to be included in subsequent versions of Windows, but was absent in all Windows NT-based OSes prior to Windows XP including Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. From the 'Help' menu, Hearts offered a quote from Shakespeare's famous play, Julius Caesar (act III, scene ii): "I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts...". Later versions of Windows starting with Vista removed this quote. Hearts is not included with Windows 8, 10 or 11. As part of the operating system, it is deleted upon upgrading to Windows 10 from an earlier version.