Regedit gives me this error message
"The registry editor cannot rename show. Error while renaming key."

The entry I tried to rename to Open is :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPointViewer.SlideShow.11\sh ell\Show
I'm using windows XP home edition and I have administrative privileges.

Close any propgrams that may be locking the key. Go to the key in the registry editor, right-click and select permissons. Look at the Advanced tab. Look for DENY permissions. They take presedence over ALLOW permissions.

I am curious as to why you would want to rename this registry key. Typically, you would change the data in the registry strings. Please reply. Also, before making any registry changes, it is safer if you export a copy of the key to a .REG file.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is typically reserved for software installation and registration information and should not be tampered with without knowing the expected results.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software is where you will find software installation settings that appliy to all users on the machine.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software is where you find user specific software installation settings. These include preferences such as default file folders and settings.

Thank you Chuckhole for your response. Unfortunately this did not solve my problem, but I don't think the fault was yours. I should've given you this symptom, which is, " when I open a .PPS file that came as a mail attachment in Outlook express and attempt to open it the following error is displayed:
this file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the set associations control box."
The set associations control box is correctly configured.
I believe this error condition started after I upgraded to IE 7.
Note that the same file opens correctly when saved to disk and then viewed.
Regards, Richard

I would assume then that when the file is an attachment in Outlook Express, that you are trying to open the file using Internet Explorer. Since it is a PowerPoint Show (.PPS) file, this should not be a problem.

Internet Explorer uses an Add-on ActiveX control to enable the viewing of Microsoft Office files within the browser. Make sure the Add-on has not been disabled. Check for the latest Service Pack for your version of MS Office. Even if you are running the latest version of the Service Pack, reinstall the Service Pack. This may help refresh the ActiveX control and the setup for it within Internet Explorer.

A last resort would be to rerun the installation of MS Office using the MSI installer. Run MSIEXEC /? At a command prompt to see all of the options. Example for Office 2003:

MSIEXEC /fpum D:\PRO11.MSI /norestart

This copies the file only if it is missing and refreshes all of the User and Machine registry entries.

Outlook express 6 is corrupted in the following ways:
It will not open a.PPS file attachment. Note that I can open this PPS file if I first save it.
I cannot print the messages in my inbox.
My inbox messages sometimes have mistranslated characters.

I attempted to correct this condition by performing the actions suggested in the second paragraph of your message. I did not reinstall office 2007 since it is running fine. I did reinstall Internet Explorer 7, which included Outlook express. However, Outlook express did not seem changed at all. This took a great deal of time and effort since I lost all of my IE settings.

I may have to give up on this effort to correct the errors, unless you come up with some easily implemented suggestions. I've spent hours trying to fix this problem.

Regards,
Richard

Problem is with a security setting by default in the trust center. Look up protected view to resolve this problem