Until recently, Windows 10 store games could only be played when connected to the internet. Microsoft has thankfully changed this, but as usual, they had to make things complicated: You can only have one “designated offline device” at a time.

How to Set Your Designated Offline Device

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If you have multiple Windows 10 devices, you’ll need to mark a single one as your “designated offline device” while online before you can play games.

Warning: You can only change your designated offline device three times a year. For comparison, Steam doesn’t restrict you to a single offline device at all, and there’s certainly no yearly limit to your gaming PCs. This is yet another good reason to avoid buying games on the Windows Store if possible.

To change your designated offline device, open the Store app, click your profile picture icon, and select “Settings”.

Scroll down to the “Offline Permissions” section and ensure the “Make this PC the one I use to run some games or apps that have limited licenses, even when I’m offline” slider is set to “On”.

Change the setting once and you’ll be informed that you can only change the setting 2 more times in the next 365 days.

Set Up Your Games

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You’ll now want to set up your games so they’ll perform offline. Not every game supports offline play, but most games in the Store do. Any network multiplayer features won’t be functional and score leaderboards won’t be available, but any in-game achievements you earn will be granted to you the next time you connect to Xbox Live on that device. The achievement popups won’t actually appear until you connect to the Internet once again.

To ensure a game will run offline, install that game and then launch it while connected to the Internet. The game will set itself up, acquire any necessary license information, and download any data it needs to function.

To confirm a game will actually function when you’re offline, you can temporarily disable your Internet connection. Close the game and head to Settings > Network & Internet > Airplane Mode. Either enable “Airplane Mode” or disable the “Wi-Fi” slider to disable your wireless Internet connection.

Attempt to launch the game while you’re offline and see if it functions. If it does, you’re good to go. You can take your computer somewhere without an Internet connection and continue playing games normally.

Online gaming is on the rise, as broadband Internet allows users to play high-quality free online games. However, gaming options for users who cannot or do not want to be constantly online still exist. Downloadable games on the Internet are abundant, ranging from vintage gems to demos of the newest releases. All of these games are available for free and the only thing you need is adequate harddisk space and to meet the system requirements.

MyPlayCity.com

MyPlayCity.com is one of the largest websites offering free downloadable games. The offered games includes racing, shooting, sports and adventure titles, as well as card and board games. The games are downloaded in their entirety and do not impose gaming time limits to players. Screenshots of games, as well their features, are listed when you click on a title. Make sure you meet the system requirements before you download any game.

Demos

Companies distribute free playable demos to the public, so that players can test the game and discover its virtues. For gamers, it's an opportunity to play for free new games -- or at least segments of them. Demos can also be an opportunity to try new game genres, as well as evaluate much-hyped new releases. Fileplanet by IGN offers demos of the latest games, but the size of the files are huge -- often surpassing 1 GB -- so be prepared for long download times.

Vintage Games

From the old Atari 2600 up to the more recent Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64, vintage games are available for free from numerous websites. The Old Computer contains one of the largest libraries of vintage games, for most of which you need a free subscription. To run each game you need the corresponding system emulator, which you can download from the 'Emulators' section of the website.

Microsoft Games

Microsoft Windows users already have a number of games that they can play offline. Even though their quality is not impressive, these games can offer some pleasant moments to casual gamers. Card games dominate Microsoft's pre-installed games, while Windows 7 also feature a 3D chess game. A fully updated Minesweeper is also available, featuring new graphics, sounds and exploding mines. The Games folder is located on the All Programs section of the Start menu.

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