PowerPoint won't start
See Cannot start an Office Program After You Install Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows 2000
If you use PowerPoint 2002 (XP) or PowerPoint 2003, see How to start Office in Safe Mode
If starting PowerPoint in Safe Mode doesn't help, try starting Windows in Safe Mode:
A PowerPoint newsgroup visitor reported that after installing Office 2003 and downloading all the patches on the MS site, PowerPoint wouldn't start, though the other Office apps would. After starting Windows in Safe Mode, PowerPoint started, and continued to work after rebooting the computer normally.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Click Start, click Shut Down and choose Shut Down.
- Wait until the computer has completely shut down. If it doesn't power off by itself, turn off the power switch.
- Turn the computer back on. At some point before Windows starts, you'll see a prompt on screen telling you to press F8 to start Windows in Safe Mode.
- As soon as you see that, press F8 and hold it until you see a startup menu.
- Choose one of the Safe Mode options and let Windows start.
- Start PowerPoint.
- Quit PowerPoint.
- Click Start, click Shut Down and choose Restart to start Windows again normally.
Note: if at bootup you don't see a prompt to press F8 for safe mode and Windows starts up normally, start over but this time press F8 as soon as the computer has made its startup beeps and hold it down until you see the startup menu. If you still don't see it, check your computer documentation, manufacturer's web site, your system administrator or the neighbor's 13-year-old son.
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