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Remove and Disable Update 2464588 in PowerPoint 2003

Learn how to remove and disable the 2464588 update that shows display errors for any presentation or template that includes a background picture in PowerPoint 2003.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2003
OS: Windows XP

Date Created: February 22nd 2011
Last Updated: February 22nd 2011

See Also: The complete story on the PowerPoint 2002/2003 issue - and the fixes you need

From the last few days, PowerPoint 2003 has started acted a little weird -- when I open any presentation or template, a window shows up (see Figure 1) stating that some of the text, images, or objects on slides within the presentation or the template have become corrupt.


Figure 1: Warning message while opening a presentation in PowerPoint 2003

Once I click OK in this window, the presentation or the template does open -- but some of the slides show blank white placeholders instead of showing up transparently over the background -- PowerPoint also seems to behave as if these slides are corrupt. But these same presentations worked without any display problems in newer versions of PowerPoint such as PowerPoint 2007 and 2010. Figure 2 shows an example of one such seemingly corrupt presentation in Slide Sorter view within PowerPoint 2003.


Figure 2: PowerPoint showing open presentation with defective slides

We later discovered that this was caused by an overzealous new PowerPoint update -- someone at Microsoft forgot to test this update with presentations or templates that had picture backgrounds inserted. Until Microsoft releases an update to resolve this update (they have released a hotfix already), you have to remove the 2464588 update for PowerPoint 2003, and see if the problem gets solved. Thereafter disable this update so that it does not get automatically updated again!

To uninstall the recent update and to disable it, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button and choose Control Panel from the resultant Start menu. From the Control Panel, select the Add or Remove Programs window in which you have to check the option that says: Show updates. The list of programs may refresh after this -- then scroll down to locate Security Update for PowerPoint 2003 (KB: 2464588) POWERPNT (see Figure 3). Select this particular update and click on Remove button that has been highlighted in red in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Add or Remove Programs window
   
   
2. Now you will see a confirmation window (see Figure 4) asking whether you are sure about removing that update. Click Yes.
   
   
   Figure 4: Confirmation window to remove update
   
   
3. This will open another window to indicate the progress of removal process that you can see in Figure 5. While the uninstall is proceeding, you might be asked to insert your Office 2003 CD or DVD -- this may not happen all the time but just in case, it is a good idea to keep it around. Once the update is removed, the window will close. You may also be asked to reboot (or not) -- either way, it is a good idea to reboot.
   
   
   Figure 5: Update being removed
   
   
4. Now launch PowerPoint and open any presentation. You will see that everything is back to normal. If you want to prevent this particular update from being installed next time, click the Start button and select All Programs. From the resultant menu select Windows Update that you can see in Figure 6.
   
   
   Figure 6: Windows Update
   
   
5. This will take you to the Microsoft Update web page. In that page click the Custom button that is shown highlighted in red in Figure 7.
   
   
   Figure 7: Microsoft Update web page
   
   
6. This will show you the list of pending Microsoft updates for your computer. Locate the 2464588 update (shown as KB2464588 in Figure 8 below). You will see a check box and a plus sign in front of it. Uncheck the box with green check mark and click on the plus sign (you can see both of those boxes highlighted in red in Figure 8).
   
   
   Figure 8: High-priority updates
   
   
7. This will give you more information about that particular update and also an option stating "Don't show this update again". Just check that option as shown in Figure 9 to prevent that update from being installed in the future.
   
   
   Figure 9: Don't show this update again option selected