Locate Your Version in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

Where is PowerPoint 2013?

You cannot locate PowerPoint 2013 on your computer? Or you are not sure if there are any other versions of PowerPoint on your computer, maybe an older version? Yes, we know that this can happen, although it does sound a little strange. You may be unable to locate PowerPoint, mainly in scenarios such as these:

• In an office, where system administrators are responsible for what's installed on your computer, and they insist that you have PowerPoint on your system, but you cannot find it!
• You bought a new desktop or laptop that came with a license for Microsoft Office. Even that's not a sure reason for you to have PowerPoint installed, as we'll explore later in this article.
• Or maybe you just lost the shortcut that used to launch PowerPoint.

Follow these steps to find PowerPoint in Windows 8 or 7:

For users of Windows 8

1. Once you are in Metro interface of Windows 8, just press the Windows + R shortcut key on your keyboard. This brings up the Run window, as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Run Window
2. Within the Run window, type “powerpnt.exe” without the quotes as shown in Figure 2, and click OK.
3. 
   Figure 2: PowerPoint being summoned through the Run Window
3. If you have PowerPoint installed, it should launch now, otherwise you'll see an error message. In case a version of PowerPoint that is different from the one you were expecting launched, we suggest you follow the steps explained later in the Which Version Do I Have? section.

For users of Windows 7

1. Choose Start | All Programs | Accessories | Run, as shown in Figure 3 (highlighted in red. You can also skip this step by pressing Windows + R shortcut keys together on your keyboard.
2. 
   Figure 3: Run command within the Start menu of Windows 7
Tip: Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences e-book.
2. This opens the Run dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.
3. 
   Figure 4: Run dialog box in Windows 7
3. Type powerpnt.exe without the quotes in the dialog box, as shown in Figure 5, and click OK.
4. 
   Figure 5: PowerPoint being summoned through the Run Window
4. If you have PowerPoint installed, it should launch now, otherwise you'll see an error message. In case a version of PowerPoint that is different from the one you were expecting launched, we suggest you follow the steps explained later in the Which Version Do I Have? section.

Which Version Do I Have?

That's a great question, the easiest way to find an answer is to bring up a list of programs installed on your computer. Bring up the Run window as explained in the preceding section of this tutorial, and type appwiz.cpl, hit the Enter key. Depending upon your OS, the resulting dialog box may look a little different but you still get a list of all programs on your computer, since this is an alphabetical list, scroll down to where you can see all programs preceded by the words Microsoft Office, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: List of all programs installed on your computer

Note that we have two versions of Microsoft Office installed on the system where this screen shot was sourced from (highlighted in red within Figure 6, above), yes, it is acceptable to have more than one version of Microsoft Office (and PowerPoint) to be installed on a single system. However only one of these can be the default PowerPoint version. Your default version is the one that launches when you type powerpnt.exe in the Run dialog box.

So how do you change the default version? Typically the last version installed is the default version, but there are other ways to change the defaults, and all of them do not work all the time!

• You can change the default version by right-clicking a PowerPoint file, then choose the Open with option in the resultant contextual menu, as shown in Figure 7. This will let you browse to, and choose the PowerPoint version that you want to be launched when you double-click a PowerPoint file.
• 
  Figure 7: Open with option lets you choose the default PowerPoint version
• You can change the default version by peeking inside your Registry, here is a link to a post called Register the Default Version of PowerPoint. Remember that anything to do with the Registry must be done with caution, it is good to have a backup of your complete system in place, just in case.
• You can bring up the list of programs on your computer by typing appwiz.cpl in the Run dialog box, and then hitting the Enter key. Once you select the version of Microsoft Office you want to be the default, you will find an option called Change (highlighted in red within Figure 8).
• 
  Figure 8: Change option to be selected
• This will bring up the Change your installation window. Here select the Repair radio button that you can see highlighted in red within Figure 9. Then, click the Continue button, highlighted in blue within Figure 9.
• 
  Figure 9: Change your installation window
• This repairs the installation and also sets the selected version as the default one.
• This is probably the easiest way, if you want to make PowerPoint 2013 the default version, just launch Word 2013, it might take a while to launch and then you can close Word. PowerPoint 2013 automatically becomes the default version. This trick has also worked in the past with PowerPoint 2010 and 2007.

I Have Word, Why Can't I Find PowerPoint?

And even if you have Microsoft Office installed doesn't mean you have PowerPoint as well. The reason is that there are some Office editions which do not include PowerPoint, this is not so true with newer releases like Office 2013 and 2010 where only the Starter edition does not include PowerPoint. If you have a version of Office 2013 without PowerPoint, the solution is to get a standalone copy of PowerPoint.