I have Vista - it won't recognize pps files?

Question

I have MS Office 2010, inc MS Office PowerPoint 2007, and MS PowerPoint 2010. People send me emails with pps files that are not recognized by my software. What's with that and how can it be fixed? I also have Mozilla Firefox loaded. Is this the problem - a conflict with what is viewable and what isn't? Do I need Firefox? And if I eliminate it, will it still have remnants that may continue to conflict?

Answer 1

It's got nothing to do with your browser.



.PPS files are powerpoint slide show files associated with Powerpoint 2003.



You indicate that you have Powerpoint 2007 AND Powerpoint 2010. Is this correct information? It's possible there is a conflict somehow on your PC with two different versions of Powerpoint running. People can run two versions of office, but, sometimes there are conflicts. There is no need for you to have both Office 2007 and Office 2010 as they are the same except that Office 2010 is newer with a few enhancements. I would recommend deleting 2007. It will not screw up your files as 2010 will open all 2007 files.



But first I recommend you check to see what file is associated with opening .PPS files for your PC. To do that you need to Click on Control panel > programs > default programs > associate a file type or protocol with a program. Then scroll down to .PPS and check to see what program is associated with opening this type of file. It should be Microsoft Powerpoint so if it's not, you need to click the change program button and go to the powerpoint execution file and select it. As soon as you click the "Change program" button Windows is going to give you some "recommended programs" for opening this file. Powerpoint should appear as an option but if it doesn't, then click the browse button. Then you'll need to go to Programs, Microsoft Office, etc. until you find the powerpoint.exe file.



See if this clears your issue up. If it doesn't, then I would recommend you uninstall the Powerpoint 2007 version so that Powerpoint 2010 can open all of your powerpoint files without conflict.

Answer 2

Errors in your registry are one of the common causes for incorrect file associations on your windows system. It is highly recommended that you check your registry for file association errors (will also check for any other registry errors).



The PPS file type is primarily associated with 'PowerPoint' by Microsoft Corporation.



If you do not have PowerPoint, Microsoft has a free PowerPoint viewer. Use their download site to search for it.



Another option is to use the free OpenOffice.org office suite. The presentation portion of the suite can both display and edit PowerPoint presentations.



Other office suites can also display PowerPoint presentations (e.g., Wordperfect) so if you have one of those installed, try that first.



Detailed information for file extension PPS:

Primary association: PowerPoint

Company: Microsoft Corporation

Mime type: application/vnd.ms-powerpoint

Program ID: PowerPoint.SlideShow.8 , PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11 , soffice6.pps

Related links: Microsoft Office Download Site, OpenOffice.org Suite, Zoho Viewer (Web Viewer)

Other applications associated with file type PPS:

ArcView (Processing Set Codes) by ESRI

Answer 3

One site suggest you might have a registry error.



Cannot access PPS files on windows?

When windows gives you an error message saying that it

"Cannot open PPS files", this means either:



A. You need to identify a program that can open the file

B. Or your registry may be damaged