Mozilla Thunderbird / PowerPoint .PPS email attachments

Problem:
Mozilla Thunderbird doesn't know what to do with PowerPoint .PPS file email attachments, and the checkbox for "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" is grayed out.
'Do this automatically for files like this from now on' is grayed out


Cause:
Registry is missing entry for .PPS Content Type, and Registry entry for Powerpoint Viewer uses "Show" instead of "Open" for default action.

Solution:
Modify Registry.

Warning:
Make a System Restore Point before modifying the registry, just as a safety precaution, just in case you screw up the registry and need to restore things back to the way they were.

To Fix:
  1. Install Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer.

  2. Edit registry key for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pps
    Add value= Content Type , data= application/vnd.ms-powerpoint  [data type String (REG_Z)]

    For those of you using regedit:
    1. START → RUN, regedit
    2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pps
    3. EDIT → NEW → STRING VALUE, Content Type
    4. EDIT → MODIFY...
      Value Name: Content Type
      Value Data: application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
      Content Type=application/vnd.ms-powerpoint

      So it looks like this:
      .PPS Content Type=application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
  3. Read what it says for (Default). In this case it says PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11

  4. Navigate to that key (e.g. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11

  5. Change key from Show  to  Open:
    Change 'Show' to 'Open'
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Show
    change to:
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\shell\Open

    For those of you using reegedit:

    1. Right-click on "Show" key, select 'Rename'


  6. Navigate to Shell and change the (Default) action from Show  to  Open
    Change 'Show' to 'Open'

    For those of you using reegedit:

    1. Right-click on (Default), select 'Modify...', change 'Value Data:' to Open

      [Note: Make sure you're changing the default value for shell ]


  7. It should now look like this:
    after changes
You're done.

Now when you run Thunderbird and open a .PPS attachment you should get:

'Do this automatically for files like this from now on' is now OK

If you select "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" you can later change the behavior by going to Thunderbird's TOOLS → OPTIONS → ATTACHMENTS


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