PowerPoint for Win not on option as default program

I'm brand new to this all and am having a problem I hope someone can help me with.

MacBook Pro, brand new
Installed Parallels, XP Pro and latest office for both mac and PC

I enjoy running XP in full screen mode. When I try to open a powerpoint file it opens in mac's powerpoint behind the window. (Helpful! :rolleyes) If I try to change file assoc in windows, powerpoint is not an option. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I can open PPT then choose Open and the file, but that's just a pain.

I was able to set associations for other file types (.doc, .xls, .eps, .psd, etc...) but PowerPoint doesn't even show up as an option in the "open with" dropdown.

Any help apreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

Have you tried to make Mac OS set the needed app as a default one -- Ctrl-click the file with needed extension, choose Open With -> Other, select the appropriate application and check 'Always open with'

 

I'm having the EXACT same problem and have the same setup (except my machine is Macbook Air).

To the Parallels team: you can't even select Powerpoint when you try to change the "Open With". It doesn't even show up. If you select Browse, find the powerpoint executable, it still doesn't show up. This has got to be a bug.

I bought Parallels specifically to run the Windows version of Powerpoint at work. This is a big problem for me.

Please someone help. I have read the knowledgebase article already.

 

Right click on ppt, pptx files select Open With and select Power Point and check, always open such kind files with this program
If you cannot see Power Point in list navigate to installation folder to c:\Program File \Microsoft Office - or to folder you selected to install

 

It's 2012 and I have the same problem.

The December 2008 reply by John@parallels is bogus because he's missing the point. He said:"Right click on ppt, pptx files select Open With and select Power Point and check, always open such kind files with this program. If you cannot see Power Point in list navigate to installation folder to c:\Program File \Microsoft Office - or to folder you selected to install"

As the user back in 2008 was trying to say (and I'm saying it now because I have the same problem) is that even if you navigate to the executable file and choose it, it immediately FORGETS that you chose it!

Let me be even clearer: Powerpoint is not in the list, so I click "Browse." I browse to the executable and select it (POWERPNT). Then I click "Open" (my only other choice is "Cancel"). That brings me back to the "Choose the program you want to use to open this file" screen.

In that screen, Powerpoint STILL isn't there, and Keynote is selected! As in, between clicking "Open" and getting back to this screen, it completely FORGOT that I had chosen it.

My setup: OS X Lion, with Parallels 7.
Windows 7 64 bit. Office 2010 home and school edition.

Keep this in mind: Up until today I was using Office 2007 Pro, and it worked perfectly. It knew that a .pptx was a Powerpoint. It's only since I removed Office 2007 and installed Office 2010 that the problem started.



Any help would be appreciated.


Small update: I'm not sure how, but I managed to get Powerpoint to show up in the list (it might be because I put a shortcut to the executable in the "Program Files" folder -- the source file is in "Program File (x86)". It doesn't even say "Powerpoint." It says "Microsoft Office 2010 component" and uses the Powerpoint icon.

Once I set that, I double-click a .pptx file and I get "<file name> is not a valid Win32 application."

Grrrrrr! What's going on?

 

Update

I went into Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Set Associations and I noticed that .pttm and .ptts are associated with Powerpoint. So I opened a .pptx file (the slow way, via the File>Open menu inside Powerpoint) and saved it as .pttm.

I can double-click the .pttm file and it opens in Powerpoint.

What that tells me is this:

- Windows 7 is aware of Powerpoint at some level.
- It just isn't aware of it when using the methods normally used to change file associations.

It's as if I have two different channels into the file associations controller. If I try to change the association of the .pttm file, Powerpoint is among the options I can choose from when I go into the "Other Programs" list. But if I try to change the association of a .ppt or .pttx file, Powerpoint is NOT among the options I can choose from!

 

Setting default program - look in Program Files (x86)

When selecting the default program manually, be sure to look in Program Files (x86) such as
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\POWERPNT.EXE

 

Thanks Steve, you're comment was right on the money!