I work as a temp receptionist and so am constantly using different computers. A lot of time it’s boring so I like to play games and puzzles. I can’t use my phone, so I’m wondering, can I play puzzles like word search in a web browser instead?
I’ve had many friends who have worked as receptionists and similar and know just what you mean about it sometimes being fairly quiet job punctuated by bursts of activity. I’m pretty sure it’s also why Microsoft Solitaire became such a popular game: A lot of receptionists still seem to favor it as the time filler between tasks! Things have improved since then, however, so you won’t be surprised to learn that there are now hundreds of games you can play within your Web browser.
Even better, if you use a browser like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, you can log in to your account when you start your day and instantly have access to all your bookmarks and installed web apps. That’s what I’ll demonstrate in this tutorial, using Microsoft Edge, the default Windows browser, and MSN.com, where they have a remarkably large collection of games and puzzles, all playable from within a browser.
FIND YOUR GAME IN MSN.COM
Fire up Edge, log in (click the profile icon on the top right and choose “Sign in”), then go to msn.com/play to get to the game library. Here’s what you’ll see:
If you look on the left side, you can see that there are a lot of categories from which to choose! You can definitely peruse the catalog, but it’s easier to use the tiny search box just below your profile. Click where it shows “Search games” and you can look for Tetris-like games…
or poker games…
or soccer games…
or just stay on theme and look for word search puzzles:
I haven’t tried all of these, but I do like Amazing Word Search for a quick puzzle, so that’s what I’ll install.
HOW TO PLAY AN MSN.COM GAME
What’s great is you don’t have to install anything; click on the game and you can immediately play it within your Web browser:
If you bookmark or favorite this page, since you’re logging in to your Edge browser at the beginning of each day, that bookmark will be easily accessible on any PC or Mac you use. This is the lowest impact solution and if your clients ask that you not change the computer configuration, this might be your best bet.
HOW TO INSTALL IT AS AN EDGE APP
Modern Web browsers can serve as entire operating systems – hence Google Chrome and Chromebooks – so it’s no surprise that Microsoft Edge supports its own app ecosystem. What’s really cool about it is that with just a few clicks, you can have your favorite games on their own menu right from the toolbar. Log in to a new system, and you can optionally install them on that within seconds.
On the MSN game page, notice that on the top right there are some buttons. You want the downward pointing arrow from the lineup:
The other buttons let you easily share the game link with friends, zoom it to full screen, change light/dark color scheme, and access your MSN games profile. Click on “Install” and you’ll be prompted to download the app into MS Edge:
Handy, right? Click on “Install” to proceed. Once it’s done, though, no new icon appears on the toolbar. Instead, you’re left with a new puzzle to solve: Where are your installed Edge apps?
FINDING YOUR NEW GAMES IN MS EDGE
It’s a bit of menu spaghetti to find your apps, but we’ll solve that in a moment. For now, click on “•••”, then “More Tools”, then “Apps”:
“View Apps” will open up a side window that offers a convenient list of everything you’ve installed on any of your Microsoft Edge systems. Yes, this means you can install all your favorite games at home on your PC and then have them accessible from any work system you use too.
Don’t worry about the first line here: I was on a blank tab when taking this screenshot so it, of course, cannot be an app. Notice instead that Amazing Word Search is ready to go, but that I can also see that I have an EforAll app and Google Photos both installed on Microsoft Edge on other computers, and that a single click on “Install” will add them to this system.
More than that, however, notice that there’s a button added to the toolbar along the very top, four squares, with the top right one akilter. That’s the Apps button, and you can lock it into the taskbar by searching for “apps” in Settings:
The last match is Appearance > Toolbar, and if you click the slider to enable it, the Apps button will remain on your Toolbar even when you close the Apps sidebar. That’s the move. Done. Now, go and try a quick wordsearch!
Pro Tip: I’ve been using and writing about Microsoft’s Office Suite and other online tools for many years. Please check out my Microsoft Edge & Outlook help library for lots and lots of useful tutorials! Thanks.