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What does "This file does not have a program associated with it" mean?

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I'm getting the message "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the folders options control panel." when I attempt to open a PPS attachment in Outlook Express. What's that all mean, and what do I do?

Well, in short it means that Outlook Express doesn't know what to do with the attached file. It tries to figure that out based on the file "extension" or the characters that follow the last period in the file name; in your case, the "pps".

So, we'll have to tell it what to do.

The simplest thing to do is usually to reinstall the application that you expect to handle this type of file. For a PPS file you might reinstall the PowerPoint Viewer, or perhaps Microsoft Office, which contains PowerPoint. Office also offers what's called a "repair" install. One or the other should remedy the situation in most cases.

But reinstalling software isn't always practical. Let's face it, reinstalling Office could take some time. So we can fix things by hand.

Warning: this gets a little geeky.

We'll start with Windows Explorer:

  • Open up Windows Explorer. (The Windows Key + E, on many keyboards.)

  • Find any file with the PPS extension. For example somefile.pps.

  • Right-click on the filename, and select Open With ....

  • Even if the PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer is already listed don't click on it. Instead, select Choose Program at the bottom of the list that's displayed.

  • In the resulting dialog box you should find PowerPoint, or PowerPoint Viewer, and click on that.

  • Click the box labeled "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file".

  • Press OK

This made your selection permanent. PPS files will now be opened with the program you've selected.

This may be enough. See if it resolves your problem. If not, we have an additional place to make a similar modification. But this one's even geekier.

First, you'll need to locate "powerpnt.exe" (PowerPoint), or "pptveiw.exe" (PowerPoint Viewer) on your hard disk. This varies based on the version you may have. For Office 2003, with a default install, I found them at:

  • "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\POWERPNT.EXE"

  • "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\PowerPoint Viewer\PPTVIEW.EXE"

The quotes are important because there's a space in the file name. The capitalization actually doesn't matter. Remember which one you have, we'll need it in a second.

Now we go, as the error message suggested, to Control Panel:

  • In Control Panel, double click on Folder Options.

  • Click on the File Types tab.

  • In the Registered File Types list, scroll down until you find the PPS entry and click on that. It should, at this point, tell you in the Details section that it "opens with: " PowerPoint or PowerPoint viewer.

  • Click on the Advanced button.

  • For a PowerPoint file, one of the Actions listed should be Show.

  • If "Show" exists, click on it, click on Set Default, and click on Edit....

  • In the Application used to perform action: enter the full path to either PowerPoint, or PowerPoint Viewer that you found above, or use the browse button to find them again. Don't hit OK just yet.

  • For Powerpoint, after that full path name add a space followed by: /s "%1". For PowerPoint Viewer, do the same, only without the /s.

  • OK your way back out.

  • If "Show" didn't exist, click the New button, type Show in the Action field, and in the Application used to perform action field, enter the full path to either PowerPoint, or PowerPoint Viewer that you found above, or use the browse button to find them again. Don't hit OK just yet.

  • For Powerpoint, after that full path name add a space followed by: /s "%1". For PowerPoint Viewer, do the same, only without the /s.

  • Hit OK, click on Show in the Actions list, and then click on Set Default.

  • OK your way back out.

WHEW! I told you it would be geeky. You may need to shut down and restart the application you were running, perhaps Outlook Express, when you first had the problem.

Related:

Article 9943 | Posted February 27, 2006

Recent Comments
59 Comments

i cant open any .exe at all!
I get:
"This file does not have a program associated with it etc" ....
I haven't added/changed anything recently otherthan installed SP3 (Service Pack 3) recently on windows XP home.
Microsoft can't think of anything i can do, because file types aren't recognised so i can't add/remove/reinstall anything!
:(
Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Posted by: Jake budd at June 10, 2008 12:08 PM

i get the same message but its for wordpad i can not open it can u please help

Posted by: Taha at July 3, 2008 11:29 PM

I tried the instructions above in trying to open a PowerPoint slide-show and it didn't work. I found a way to open it by right clicking on the PowerPoint attachment in the email and clicking on "Save As". I saved it to the Desktop, went to the Desktop where I'd saved the PowerPoint, clicked on the icon and it opened. I had PowerPoint on my old computer Windows ME and it worked fine but sure won't now. My computer tech couldn't figure it out either. Maybe I did something wrong re Leo's instructions, he has certainly helped me before and I do appreicate his site.

Posted by: willa at July 17, 2008 10:40 PM

I get the same error message only it isn't with Power Point. The message is related to a .wmv file that is coming from a logitech video email that I receive. Can I use this answer and just substitute any file with a .wmv extention instead of pps?

Posted by: Kgar at July 24, 2008 9:03 PM

Hello Leo,

I am a software engineer, so I know this kind of stuff, and your solution DID NOT WORK for me either. I could not get Outlook Express on XP to run .PPS files either. I tried both pptview.exe 2003 and pptview.exe 2007, and I tried both of their "repair" buttons! And I tried your solution 3 times plus some variations. Still nothing. So I tried to use the "non-space" filename:

c:\progra~1\micros~2\office12\pptviewer.exe "%1"

Still Nothing. If you click on a .PPS file in Explorer, it opens the file just fine (like the above comment mentions). This means that the association is correct. But it still WILL NOT open in Outlook Express. Microsoft Outlook idiot-programmers just messed this one up some way. Your solution just will not work.

Andrew Gray

Posted by: Andrew Gray at August 1, 2008 11:06 AM

Hi Leo. Many people on this thread have written the question in effect: With "any program in All programs, the shortcuts in Desktop and click in Control Panel appears the same (error) message." As far as I can read, you have not answered/addressed any of these people. I now have (instantly obtained) the same problem with a friend's computer. Is it possible for you to expand your answer (beyond the limited opening a-.pps-file-in-outlook-express)? And, perhaps suggest a senario how all these programs-non-open-with-that-error-message occured? Thank You.

Posted by: Mark Critchley at August 6, 2008 1:19 AM

Hi leo i am having this problem with a different program. I am trying to important pictures from my cell phone with windows live photo gallery and it says the file does not have a program associated with it. I dont know what the file is considered so i can change it in the set assosciations

Posted by: Ryan B at August 22, 2008 11:04 PM

Hi Leo,

I am having the same problem with all my links and .EXE files. I recently installed SP3. Do you think it has anything to do with it?
I cannot even restore XP to a previous point in time because I get the same error.

Thanks!

Posted by: eduardopa at August 30, 2008 11:59 AM

All of a sudden one day, ALL documents I made with "notepad" started giving this same error message when trying to open them.
I don't know WHAT happened. My notepad documents worked FINE, all these years!

I somehow changed one to an ".rtf" file, and now they are ALL that way.
They are hard to read, and have codes between the paragraphs, etc.

I just want to have my normal documents, in normal document fonts back!!

What possibly can I do?????????????

Thank you!!

Posted by: Jen at September 16, 2008 5:51 PM

Hi Leo,
I have a desktop PC running WinXP MCE SP3. I too had the frustrating problem of not being able to open PPS attachments in Outlook Express, but I could view a PPS file with PowerPoint Viewer when double clicking a PPS file in Windows Explorer, which of course meant that my PPS files were properly asssociated with the PowerPoint application.
I have now found the solution. The problem lies with the fact that the command actions for PPS files installed by the PowerPoint viewer installer are only 'Show' and 'Print', with the former being the default action. However, it seems that when OE attempts to open a PPS attachment, it seems to require the presence of an 'Open' command for PPS files, and there is not one to use, and hence OE generates the error message about no file association. The solution is to locate the PPS entry in Folder Options/File types, click Advanced, and then click 'New...' for a new command action. The name of the new action is 'Open', and all the remaining details will be identical to the default 'Show' action as outlined by your existing advice. So for PPS files, I now have three command actions - 'Show' (default), 'Print' and now also 'Open'. Basically your 'geekier' advice was spot on, except for needing to replace the command action name of 'Show' for 'Open', as far as OE is concerned. I hope this will help to produce a final resolution of this irritating OE problem for all your readers.

Posted by: James Medlicott at September 30, 2008 2:16 PM

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