Click start in the search box search for these file types .ppt, .pptx, .pptm, .pot, .potx, .potm, .pps, see what happens.

again I suggest downloading the free open office

Have you tried System Restore to an earlier date before
you started removing whatever it is your after?
Start - All programs - Accessories - System Tools -
System Restore.

If you downloaded and installed the free powerpoint viewer you need to associate the powerpoint file with that, not works or some other program. You should be able to navigate to powerpoint viewer in the set associations box. Did you both download and install the powerpoint viewer? If so windows should automatically open a powerpoint file in the viewer when you open it. The association should be set automatically when you install the viewer.

I have tried everything everyone told me to do. I now have open office installed. It is even telling me the powerpoint file can not be found, yet I can see it in open office and I can see it in programs. I give up, nothing works and I'm totally frustrated. This should have been easy, I did everything as it said to do. I am afraid the whole problem is the uninstall I did with microsoft office and powerpoint. I tried the system restore but couldn't get that to go back to a previous date, it just says today. None of my powerpoint emails will work at all. I'm going to bed before I lose my mind...LOL!

You downloaded and installed the PowerPoint viewer as Bob suggests?

If so then try saving one of the PPS shows from an email to your computer, you should then be able to open it. OK this is not what you want to do every time but it confirms the program works for you.

Now go here and download the PPSFix.zip file. Unzip and install and your worries should be gone. Let us know how that works for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: PowerPoint viewer 2007 download page

THANK YOU, Owbist!! I can finally watch a powerpoint directly in OE! Before this, I had to save the file to a PPS downloads folder that I had created in my documents, then go to my documents, find the file and open it, then delete it if I did not want to keep it. Now it is soooo much simpler. In case anyone wonders, it does pay to read this forum all the time. You never know what fix you will find for a problem you have.
Thanks again.

"I can finally watch a powerpoint directly in OE! Before this, I had to save the file to a PPS downloads folder that I had created in my documents, then go to my documents, find the file and open it, then delete it if I did not want to keep it. Now it is soooo much simpler."

I wasn't going to touch this thread, but now I must because the above response is a perfect illustration of how easy it is to communicate the wrong thing unintentionally. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what this poster meant to say was that the powerpoint file could be LAUNCHED FROM OE. Saying that it can be watched in OE is sure to lead someone, somewhere to think the wrong thing, unless they read and understand the entire thread. In addition, the long process that this poster disdains in favor of the simpler one is exactly the one that all users should become familiar with (that is....learning to navigate among their folders and files) before they start seeking shortcuts.

Way to go Janette, glad it all worked out. Strangely I had this same issue on 2 local machines in the last 3 months so offering the fix was easy.

I save many PPS shows then I can split them out and save individual photos when I need to. I also have a Dutch friend who gets PPS shows from Holland, she sends them to me but also asks if I can separate the music and send back to her. Always happy to do that.

OWBIST I have followed all your instructions, and everyone elses suggestions. I have had a terrible day, did the HIKEY thing and the PPSFIX.Zip, that would not work with my Vista, it is only for XP. I double clicked each PPS in whatever file I was in, and everyone was set to open with powerpoint viewer. I've been in so many places on this computer today everything is just running together in my mind. I even had some kind of crash, long story but anyway the system restore file came up and said I needed to do a restore. Something I had tried yesterday that wouldn't go to previous dates. This one would not go back either to where I wanted it to go. I did get it back up and running but geeez. I am still getting "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the set assoc control panel. I went there they are all set to open with powerpoint viewer. I give up, I guess I'll have to have someone fix this, I am just not having any luck. I still think when I uninstalled M.Office and PP, that something I needed for this computer was lost. That is when everything went wrong. Believe me I really am not as stupid as I am feeling or sounding right now. I can usually figure things out, never had this many problems before. I liked my old windows 98 better than this VISTA...LOL Thanks All, Nancy

just a thought have you done all your service pack updates for Vista so it is fully up to date on windows updates?

I ask because in some cases there were changes in the later service packs to fix certain types of errors.

Nancy please don't misunderstand me here but allowing this to get you frazzled is the worst thing that can happen. Just walk away for a few minutes or a day if needed, cool calm people make fewer mistakes.

Grab a coffee and relax while you read through the attachment before attempting to follow it along. You are going to edit the registry if you follow the link so peace of mind is vital.This is not rocket science by any stretch but you need to double check each or any entry you do.

In my other post I never mentioned the fix was for XP only because I was writing to Nancy, the thread starter so it was irrelevant as she stated at the outset she was running XP. Perhaps I should have done that as I realise we do get lurkers who are interested in learning.

Here is a link that might be useful: PPS fix for Vista users?

I don't see where she mentioned XP. And Nancy is the OP. Now I'm confused, too.

Oops, sorry about that the fingers got ahead of the brain no doubt.

Yesterday I had to go to the town where Best Buy is located, (where I bought my computer). I decided what the heck, I'd take in my computer and have Geek Squad look at it. Anyway they couldn't figure it out either, said it was probably just a glick somewhere. The guy said he might be able to figure it out and fix it, if I could leave it for about a week for him to go all through it. He said everything was there and set right, so it didn't make any sense. However I can now see and hear my slideshow emails, as he made a file for me on desktop to save them to, then I can open from there. I could have done that too I guess, but I wanted them to work the old way in outlook, "the right way". I know I shouldn't get so frustrated, but when you spend 2 days, all day long, and can't fix something that should be easy, you do everything people tell you to and to the letter, and something still won't work, well I just can't help it. Must be an age thing..LOL LOL LOL! Anyway I appreciate everyones help, this is a great place to come for it! Nancy

I am simply amazed geek squad did not want to reformat the pc, sorry not a fan of theirs at all seen the mess they have made on some of my friends and family computers. Reformat is their standard answer to even the smallest issue.

Thank you owbist, I have been looking for a this pps fix for some time now. As I'm on Vista I followed the link instructions, but only did the correction changing the "show to open" on the slideshow 11.
It said if you had PowerPoint Viewer 2007 installed, which I did, to repeat the same thing on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.12\shell\Show

After carefully looking there was no 12 on my machine. So I tried an e-mail with a PPS file and it "did" open. Finally it works. Thanks again!