Re: PowerPoint viewer versions - strange file association behaviour
Franc Zabkar wrote:
| On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:55:49 -0500, "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> put
| finger to keyboard and composed:
|
|>Franc Zabkar wrote:
|>| If I go to View->Folder Options->File Types in Explorer, I see an
|>| entry for "Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Show". Under "file type
|>| details" I have Extension PPS, Opens with PPTVIEW. Choosing
|>| Edit->Edit I see that the "default extension for content type" is
|>| ".ppt" and the "application used to perform action" is ...
|>|
|>| C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\PowerPoint Viewer\pptview.exe /p
|>| "%1"
|>|
|>| The Properties for pptview.exe indicate a file version of 11.0.5703.
|>
|>I don't have Office installed or a "Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Show"
|>in Folder Options, File Types tab. HOWEVER, the above sounds fine to
|>me! And the result of it should be that any .ppt file that you click
|>in Explorer should open in PptView.exe. Can you verify definitively
|>that it does?
|
| I get the same strange file association behaviour for .ppt files.
Uhuh.
|>| I also have an earlier version of MS PP viewer (8.0) at ...
|>|
|>| C:\Program Files\PowerPoint Viewer\PPVIEW32.EXE
|>
|>And can you verify definitively it does not open in this one, when you
|>click a .ppt in Explorer or in a Find Files list? PPVIEW32.EXE, you
|>say, is for the file type .pps? Does it show up in the Folder
|>Options, File Types list?
|
| If I launch PPVIEW32.EXE, I am presented with a choice of .ppt, .pps,
| and .pot file types in the "file name" box. If I choose a .pps or .ppt
| file, then it launches OK (I don't have any .pot files).
I see. So, PPVIEW32.EXE can be used for all 3 of those. Hmm. What about
PptView.exe? What happens when you launch that? Does it also offer all
three file types?
| If I
| double-click a .pps or .ppt file in Explorer or in a Find Files list,
| then pptview.exe is launched instead and I get the error message.
Uhuh. Suppose you R-Clk the file, what shows up as the options-- Open,
Show, & Print? Which one is highlighted? The highlighted one is the one
that would happen when the file is D-Clkd. It is the default action that
is selected/highlighted in the Actions window for that file type in its
Edit File Type requestor of the Folder Options, File Types tab.
| I can see that different PP versions are running by typing
| Ctrl-Alt-Del. The task name is either "Microsoft Office PowerPoint
| Viewer" (pptview.exe) or just "PowerPoint Viewer" (ppview32.exe). The
| actual file names can be seen in Wintop.
That is definitive, then, as far as knowing which is running. Also, both
of them claim to be a viewer. So, you may be right that one is an update
to the other & is meant to totally replace it. Or, one may be the
version that comes with MS Office, & the other may be available for
those who don't have Office.
|>| My email client is Eudora. If I launch a .pps attachment, then I
|>| will experience the following strange file association behaviour.
|>
|>So, you are launching an attachment & not really just clicking a .ppt
|>or a .pps? I think it is up to Eudora to pass it to the right program,
|>then. Does Eudora have anything in its menus or in its help screens
|>that seem to apply or mention it?
|
| No, Eudora appears to hand it off to the OS, although it does have
| LaunchProtect which warns you that the attachment is an executable. In
| any case I have launched the same attachment by other means and
| reproduced the problem.
Hmm. So... Eudora was through opening the attachment & passed the file
to Windows? Then, Windows offered the Open With requestor? That normally
isn't done when an action for it is already entered in Folder Options,
File Types tab! And this happens with both a .pps & a .ppt? Sheesh!
|>(The Folder Options, File Types, list, I believe, will only apply to
|>files you actually click in Explorer or in a Find Files list.)
|>
|>| Eudora's "Open attachment with" option only gives a choice of
|>| PPVIEW32, not PPTVIEW as described above in Explorer's Folder
|>| Options.
|>
|>Looks like Eudora isn't getting the options from the list that
|>comprises "Folder Options, Files Types"-- or surely it would have
|>been offered!
|
| Explorer itself has the same problem, so it's not a Eudora issue.
| Sorry for the red herring.
OK. I guess it is Windows's Open With requestor that is at fault.
|>| If I choose PPVIEW32 without ticking the "always open with"
|>| checkbox, the .pps file opens OK.
|>
|>The .pps file-- so? Why would you want Eudora to offer PptView.exe for
|>that-- isn't it just for .ppt files?
|
| PPT, PPS, and POT files appear to be Microsoft PowerPoint
| Presentations, Slide Shows, and Templates. These three options appear
| in Folder Options under the File Types tab. All are associated with
| pptview.exe.
Hmm.
(a) Do those files types each appear in the "Microsoft PowerPoint
Slide Show" entry?
(I guess they do, going by that Registry export.)
(b) And, are you sure that one is for the Office version of Power Point?
(I think it is, going by mostly pptview shows up in the Registry.)
(c) Do the file types also appear separately, for instance in an
entry named PPS File, PPT File, etc.?
(I think they probably don't, going by PPVIEW32 showed up
in that export of the Power Point entry.)
I know that the separate one(s) could result from opening a file using
the Windows Open With requestor while checking the "Always use..." box.
But the Open With box isn't normally offered when an association already
exists. It will be offered in that case only when Shift is held while
R-Clkng the file. Then, it can be used to change the association-- but I
wouldn't want to use it in this case of complex associations such as
Power Point has. It should be used only for simple ones, I think, that
only have the open action.
So... look for & remove the separate ones in the File Types tab. Then,
maybe un/re-install Power Point-- the one that came with Office. Does
Office have a repair function? You may also need to uninstall the other
version of Power Point that you seem to have as well.
| FWIW, the .ppt file type is the default extension for
| each of the above (Edit->Default Extension for content type), contrary
| to what is displayed in the "file type details" box.
That could be normal. I don't have any Power Point installed to compare
it with, though.
|>| If I tick the box, then I get "this version is
|>| only supported on Win98SE, Win ME, Win2K, etc", which is the message
|>| one normally gets when using PPTVIEW.
|>
|>What program is giving that message?
|
| PowerPoint Viewer. This is a known bug for Win98SE. The "fix" is to
| edit the SubVersionNumber key in the registry as you have indicated
| below.
Right. It was good of them to give us that Security Update CD, though.
|>Weren't you in the middle of an
|>Eudora requestor? Or did the requestor end & did something else open?
|>Don't you have an About box to tell you what program Eudora may have
|>passed the .pps file to?
|>
|>It probably doesn't mean anything, but what shows up at...
|>
|>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]
|>"SubVersionNumber"=" A "
|>"Version"="Windows 98"
|>"VersionNumber"="4.10.2222"
|>
|>SubVersionNumber will change to a "B" after the Security Update CD is
|>run, & under certain version number complaint circumstances, the
|>complaints may disappear by changing it back-- but I don't know it
|>applies here!
|
| Mine is SubVersionNumber "B", but this is a different problem.
I still think you should try reverting to an " A ", because that error
message is so similar. Be sure to include the space before & after the
letter. Glee agrees it's worth a try for this part of the problem. If
the error message goes away, maybe try " B " too, with spaces-- I don't
recall whether anyone ever tried that.
| My
| problem is in trying to understand why ticking or not ticking the
| "always open with" checkbox selects different versions of PowerPoint
| Viewer, even after specifying PPVIEW32.EXE in both cases.
I don't think one should be trying that in the case of complex
associations that have Actions other than just Open.
| Anyway, below is what I found in the registry. It appears to me that
| MS broke my registry in the process of updating the viewer. Note the
| dual references to pptview and ppview32 (shell\open\command and
| shell\Show\command) under the same key.
It might also be that it got wrecked using Open With on a complex one, I
think. Maybe it doesn't create separate entries, but just goes into the
Power Point entry & wrecks it. (I don't know.)
| After probing the registry I went back to Explorer's Folder Options
| and found that the default action for .pps files was Show.
So, this one would be highlighted in the R-Clk context menu for .pps
files in Explorer. If you D-Clk that action in the Folder Options
window, I guess pptview.exe is the program that performs the action,
going by what I see in your Registry.
| If I chose
| the "open" action, then the "application used to perform action" was
| ...
|
| C:\PROGRA~1\POWERP~1\PPVIEW32.EXE "%1"
|
| ... which tallies with what I found below.
I agree. It could be the cure is as simple as changing PPVIEW32.EXE to
pptview.exe like all the others. (But I don't really know.)
| It appears that ticking the "always open with" checkbox selects the
| default action, which in this case is Show, whereas leaving this box
| unchecked selects the "open" action.
I don't know how to test the truth of that without wrecking my own
stuff.
| ====================================================================
| REGEDIT4
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pps]
| "Content Type"="application/vnd.ms-powerpoint"
| @="PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11"
| ====================================================================
|
| REGEDIT4
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11]
| @="Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Show"
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell]
| @="Show"
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Show]
| @="&Show"
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Show\command]
| @="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\PowerPoint Viewer\\pptview.exe
| \"%1\""
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Print]
| @="&Print"
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Print\command]
| @="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\PowerPoint Viewer\\pptview.exe
| /p \"%1\""
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\open]
| @=""
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\open\command]
| @="C:\\PROGRA~1\\POWERP~1\\PPVIEW32.EXE \"%1\""
|
| [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\DefaultIcon]
| @="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\PowerPoint
| Viewer\\pptview.exe,3"
| ====================================================================
|
| - Franc Zabkar
| --
| Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net