PPT2000: You Receive an Error Message When You Try to Open a Presentation in Windows Explorer

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This article was previously published under Q296704

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SYMPTOMS

If you double-click a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in Windows Explorer, the presentation does not open, and you receive the following two error messages:

"Benchmark switch :-#[0-9]"

-and-

The path or file name for filename is invalid. Please check that the path and file name are correct.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs when the file name contains a hyphen (-) that is followed by the number sign (#) and a number.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

276367 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276367/EN-US/ ) OFF2000: How to Obtain the Latest Office 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time      Size       File name     
   ----------------------------------------------------
   26-APR-2001  13:49:56  1,261,568  Powerpnt.msp
   26-APR-2001  14:49:02  2,454,528  Powerpnt_admin.msp

After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later:

   Date          Time     Version     Size       File name     
   ----------------------------------------------------------
   16-MAY-2000  11:10:30  -             476,672  Ppttools.ppa
   30-JUN-2000  12:59:44  -               4,096  Pptsec.mst
   26-APR-2001  01:46:02  9.0.0.5225  4,251,700  Powerpnt.exe

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP-3).

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