Helpdesk Baruch College

How (and Why) to Start Microsoft PowerPoint from the Command Prompt

You can open PowerPoint from the Windows Command Prompt. Using this method, you can include extra criteria that let you do things like start PowerPoint in Safe Mode for troubleshooting, or start with a particular template.

How to Run PowerPoint with a Command

There are 2 ways to open PowerPoint from the Command Prompt– one of which you require to understand to find out which directory the “powerpnt.exe” file is located in. You can do this manually by digging through File Explorer, or you can utilize Command Prompt to discover it.

Open a Command Prompt window. You can do this by typing “cmd” in the Windows Search bar (situated on the taskbar next to the Windows icon). Press Enter or click the “Command Prompt” application in the search results.

When you initially open the Command Prompt, you’ll start in your user account folder. From here, you can merely type this command and press Enter to release PowerPoint:

You can also open PowerPoint from the directory that holds the powerpnt.exe file, but you need to know which directory site it’s in.

To discover the specific place of the powerpnt.exe file, we’ll need to go to the Program Files directory by utilizing the cd command. This command changes your present directory site in Command Prompt.

Type this command, then press Enter:

You’ll now be in the Program Files directory. The next action is to locate the directory site where the powerpnt.exe file lies. Do so by typing the following command and pushing “Enter.”

As soon as you enter this command, the Command Prompt will find the directory site for you.

Now that you know which directory the powerpnt.exe file lies in, you can use the cd command to open the file course. In this example, you would need to get in the following command:

Now you must remain in the directory site where powerpnt.exe lies.

All that’s delegated do now is to type powerpnt, then press Enter. PowerPoint will open in its typical way.

However, the whole point of utilizing the command is that you can use the various switches and criteria it uses.

PowerPoint Command Line Switches and Parameters

Here’s a list of the command switches you can use when releasing PowerPoint, thanks to the official Microsoft Office assistance website. Add these to the end of the “powerpnt” command on the command line as shown in the examples listed below:

Example:

“c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ c FilePath/presentationname. pptx

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ M howtogeek.pptm “MacroName”

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ N “Path templatename.potx”

If no design template is defined, a blank template will be utilized.

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ O Filename1.pptx, Filename2.pptx

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ P “filename.pptx”

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ PT “PrinterName” “” “” “filename.pptx”

Note that the empty quotes are required.

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ RESTORE

Example: “c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ S “filename.pptx”

Using these commands, you can open PowerPoint in any specific way you choose.

PowerPoint isn’t the only Office product you can open in this manner– you can likewise open Word from the Command Prompt!

There are two methods to open PowerPoint from the Command Prompt– one of which you require to understand to discover out which directory the “powerpnt.exe” file is located in. When you first open the Command Prompt, you’ll begin in your user account folder. Now that you know which directory the powerpnt.exe file is located in, you can use the cd command to open the file path. Here’s a list of the command changes you can utilize when releasing PowerPoint, courtesy of the main Microsoft Office assistance site. Include these to the end of the “powerpnt” command on the command line as revealed in the examples listed below:

Example:

“c: Program Files Microsoft Office root Office16 powerpnt.exe”/ c FilePath/presentationname.

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