Autorun Powerpoint CD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Watts
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Chris Watts

I am trying to create and autorun a CD containing Powerpoint 2000
presentations using Windows XP Pro. The files are just fine and the root of
presentations is saved as a Slide Show - pps file. I am experiencing two
problems:

(1) When I create a text file called autorun.inf, and save it using
Notepad, Win XP does not recognise it. I have overcome this by copying, and
editing, an existing working autorun file from another CD. Clearly the
extension was wrong but how can I change this with Win XP?

(2) Now Windows recognises the autorun.inf file. It doesn't actually
autorun but it finds and displays the icon in My Computer. When I click on
the icon, it tells me that it is not a valid Win32 Application. Do I need
to call powerpoint diectly with the pps file as a parameter? ..or what?

The contents of the autorun file are:
[autorun]
open=StartHere.pps
icon=TNA.ico


TIA
Chris
 
I think you need to turn on (unhide) file extensions in Windows so that when
you change the file extension, Windows isn't off doing what it wants to (but
hiding it from you). Here's how: http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00781.htm

That may resolve both of your issues.
 
Hi Echo,
That certainly solves the first issue, but not the second one.

On further investigation of (2), I have now changed the contents of
autorun.inf to be:
[autorun]
open=POWERPNT.exe "Start Here.ppt"
icon=TNA.ico

Now it autostarts but in edit mode, of course.
If I use a .pps extension it still does the same.
If I add the parameter /S it autostarts in Slide Show mode - great! BUT
half of the hyperlinks (those to Powerpoint and Word files) are now broken
but those to the mp3 files are just fine! If I open the "Start Here" file
directly - i.e. not via autostart - then the links are just fine.

Can anybody figure that one??

TIA
Chris



Echo S said:
I think you need to turn on (unhide) file extensions in Windows so that
when you change the file extension, Windows isn't off doing what it wants
to (but hiding it from you). Here's how: http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00781.htm

That may resolve both of your issues.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/


Chris Watts said:
I am trying to create and autorun a CD containing Powerpoint 2000
presentations using Windows XP Pro. The files are just fine and the root
of presentations is saved as a Slide Show - pps file. I am experiencing
two problems:

(1) When I create a text file called autorun.inf, and save it using
Notepad, Win XP does not recognise it. I have overcome this by copying,
and editing, an existing working autorun file from another CD. Clearly
the extension was wrong but how can I change this with Win XP?

(2) Now Windows recognises the autorun.inf file. It doesn't actually
autorun but it finds and displays the icon in My Computer. When I click
on the icon, it tells me that it is not a valid Win32 Application. Do I
need to call powerpoint diectly with the pps file as a parameter? ..or
what?

The contents of the autorun file are:
[autorun]
open=StartHere.pps
icon=TNA.ico


TIA
Chris
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I thought maybe you were renaming the file to *.pps, but because extensions
were hidden, your file was actually named *.pps.ppt

Anyway, I use the PPT Viewer on the CD. Your autorun.INF would look like
this:

[autorun]
open=pptview.exe "mypresentation.pps"

Or .PPT is fine, too, becasue the Viewer will run it full-screen regardless.

Here are some instrux for running the Viewer from CD.
http://www.echosvoice.com/autoruncd.htm I don't know why your hyperlinks
would be broken as you describe when autorunning PowerPoint itself.
Hopefully someone else will have some ideas.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

Chris Watts said:
Hi Echo,
That certainly solves the first issue, but not the second one.

On further investigation of (2), I have now changed the contents of
autorun.inf to be:
[autorun]
open=POWERPNT.exe "Start Here.ppt"
icon=TNA.ico

Now it autostarts but in edit mode, of course.
If I use a .pps extension it still does the same.
If I add the parameter /S it autostarts in Slide Show mode - great! BUT
half of the hyperlinks (those to Powerpoint and Word files) are now broken
but those to the mp3 files are just fine! If I open the "Start Here" file
directly - i.e. not via autostart - then the links are just fine.

Can anybody figure that one??

TIA
Chris



Echo S said:
I think you need to turn on (unhide) file extensions in Windows so that
when you change the file extension, Windows isn't off doing what it wants
to (but hiding it from you). Here's how:
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00781.htm

That may resolve both of your issues.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/


Chris Watts said:
I am trying to create and autorun a CD containing Powerpoint 2000
presentations using Windows XP Pro. The files are just fine and the root
of presentations is saved as a Slide Show - pps file. I am experiencing
two problems:

(1) When I create a text file called autorun.inf, and save it using
Notepad, Win XP does not recognise it. I have overcome this by copying,
and editing, an existing working autorun file from another CD. Clearly
the extension was wrong but how can I change this with Win XP?

(2) Now Windows recognises the autorun.inf file. It doesn't actually
autorun but it finds and displays the icon in My Computer. When I click
on the icon, it tells me that it is not a valid Win32 Application. Do I
need to call powerpoint diectly with the pps file as a parameter? ..or
what?

The contents of the autorun file are:
[autorun]
open=StartHere.pps
icon=TNA.ico


TIA
Chris
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