The cheats, codes, bugs, scripts and solvers on this page are for Minesweeper clones.
Clones are versions of Minesweeper accepted for world rankings but not published by Microsoft. The current official versions are Arbiter, Minesweeper X and Viennasweeper. These versions save videos of your games and can save your playing history.
Microsoft Minesweeper CheatsVersion: MSX
Minimise the game and the timer will pause until the game is maximised.
| Comment | The game timer pauses but the video file records timestamps. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Upload videos made by a different player.
| Comment | Videos contain checksums and can be matched to history files. |
Version: MSX, Viennasweeper
MSX history is stored in a *txt file and Viennasweeper history is stored in a *csv file so you can easily edit scores.
| Comment | The world ranking requires videos as primary evidence for records. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone
Arbiter history (stats.dat) and Clone history (history.inf) are protected with obfuscation and checksums but both file formats can be reverse engineered to insert and change scores.
| Comment | The world ranking requires videos as primary evidence for records. | |
| Comment | The world ranking banned all versions of Clone on 2013-06-30. |
Version: All versions
Download a program that modifies WinAPI time functions. Set the game timer to increment slowly so you can click more times per "second". Your video will play each "second" as a real second making your game faster.
| Comment | Clones use several methods to record time and advanced players can tell when amateur solving has been speeded up. |
Version: All versions
Download a program that modifies the system clock to run at a slower speed. You will be able to click more times per "second". Your video will play each "second" in a real second making you appear faster.
| Comment | Clones use several methods to record time and advanced players can tell when amateur solving has been speeded up. |
Version: Arbiter 0.43 demo3
Load a saved board and play it in Classic mode instead of UPK mode.
| Comment | Bug fix was released on 2006-04-24 with Arbiter 0.44 demo. | |
| Trivia | A cheater using this method achieved World Rank #2 before being banned. |
| 2007-09-25 | Investigation | Unincluded Features: An Arbiter Investigation |
Version: Clone 0.97 beta
Edit minesweeperclone.inf and change "Show 3BV Stats" from "After End" to "Before Start". You can now see the 3BV of each game in advance and play only the easy games.
| Comment | Bug fix was released on 2006-04-29 with Clone 2006 release 1. |
| 2009-04-08 | Minesweeper Wiki | Funny Mode |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Increase the number of mines to reduce the number of unique boards. Create a high density Custom level and save pictures of easy boards then use a macro to cycle through minesweeper to find (and play) the same boards again.
| Comment | The world ranking limits custom density to (X-1)(Y-1). |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Use a debugging program to locate the memory block storing the current Minesweeper game. Improve user experience by writing a program to show mine locations.
| 2008-05-20 | saolei.net | Clone 0.97 hacked to show mines in legal mode | ||
| 2013-10-23 | saolei.net | Arbiter 0.50.1 memory reader published |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, Viennasweeper
Open two instances of Arbiter, Clone or Viennasweeper simultaneously. The same seed will be used and both instances will produce identical sequences of games.
| Comment | Bug fix was released on 2012-03-15 with Arbiter 0.49.3. | |
| Comment | Bug fix was released on 2012-03-22 with Viennasweeper 3.0H. | |
| Comment | The world ranking banned all versions of Clone on 2013-06-30. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Use a debugging program to edit assembly language and choose the PRNG seed. The same seed will always generate the same board. However, official versions since 2012 seed the PRNG before every game and the seeding process is obfuscated.
| Comment | The world ranking banned all versions of Clone on 2013-06-30. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Use a debugging program to edit assembly language code. For example, pause the timer or flag all mines.
| Comment | Videos record the time of each mouse click which makes this cheat useless. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Reverse engineer a video file format. You could write a program to edit existing video files or you could write a minesweeper game that allows UPK and saves to this format. Remember also to hack a history file format to support your altered videos.
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Program a macro to start Beginner games and click randomly. You will eventually win a game in one second.
| Comment | The world ranking banned 1 click games on 2005-11-07. | |
| Comment | The world ranking banned lucky (random clicking) games on 2011-04-06. |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Program a solver to play minesweeper using logic.
| Comment | Automated solvers struggle to imitate human solving behaviour. |
| 2014-06-05 | sourceforge.com | Python solver (Clone 2007) | ||
| 2017-02-07 | github.com | Python solver (MSX) | ||
| 2017-09-27 | github.com | Python solver (MSX) | ||
| 2019-03-18 | github.com | Python solver (MSX) | ||
| 2018-04-20 | github.com | Python solver (MSX) | ||
| 2018-09-21 | kylecui.com | Java solver (MSX) | ||
| 2019-04-24 | github.com | C# solver (MSX) |
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Program a solver to play minesweeper using logic but include options for human interaction to make videos more realistic.
Version: Arbiter, Clone, MSX, Viennasweeper
Change your mouse settings to reduce effort and save time. For example, a cell normally opens when you press and release the left mouse button but "Elmar Technique" is a NF method where you change the mouse to open cells on both pressing and releasing. Other methods involve modifying your mouse or your machine to automatically perform certain moves.
| 2008-04-20 | Minesweeper Wiki | Elmar Technique |