Using System Information to gather troubleshooting info
Every version of Office since '97 has included a powerful diagnostics tool called System Information. It's a good way to collect information to send to tech support staff and/or Microsoft when you're trying to solve a problem in PowerPoint.
Note: In some versions of Office, this program may not be installed by default. If the instructions below don't seem to be working, re-run Office setup and make sure the MSINFO component is set to install.
How to use System Information
The instructions for starting System Information depend on which version of PowerPoint you have.
PowerPoint 2013
- Choose File | Account
- Click About PowerPoint (it no longer looks like a button but it is)
- Click System Info...
- System Information appears
PowerPoint 2010
- Choose File | Help
- Click Additional Version and Copyright Information
- Click System Info...
- System Information appears
PowerPoint 2007
- Choose Office Button | PowerPoint Options | Resources
- Click About
- Click System Info...
- System Information appears
PowerPoint 2003 and earlier
- Choose Help | About Microsoft Office PowerPoint
- Click System Info...
- System Information appears
And once the System Information window appears
Save the displayed system information as an NFO file.
Choose File | Save or press Ctrl+S and save the file in any convenient folder.
If you're diagnosing problems with a specific presentation, you might want to save the NFO file to the same folder as the presentation itself.
Depending on the version you have, you may only be able to save as text, or you may be able to Save/Export to NFO or XML as well. Given a choice, pick NFO.
What System Information showing me?
To most of us, it's Geek. Not Greek, Geek.
But it might be just the thing MS support people need to reproduce, trace and -- we devoutly hope -- FIX the problem you're having.
There are a lot of other interesting features some of which may not appear, depending on your Office version:
- You can pick any specific area (Hardware Resources, Conflicts/Sharing, for example) and choose Edit, Select All, then copy the info to the clipboard so you can paste it into another application or an email message.
- Under View, you can choose to examine Current System Information (the default setting) or you can opt for System History. In History view, you can choose how far back you want to view details in the area labeled "View Changes Since:"
Finally, under tools there are some gems.
- Net Diagnostics lets you run ... well ... network diagnostics. Fancy that.
- System Restore gives you another way of working with Windows system restore points. (Really, it's just an alternate route to the usual place, but it's handy to have all your troubleshooting tools in one place like this).
- Direct X Diagnostic Tool lets you give your video system a real workout and enable/disable Direct-X features that might be causing trouble.
- Signature Verification lets you check your system and other files for valid "digital signatures".
- Dr. Watson lets you configure what info the good Doc will save when your apps go belly up, and it lets you view the details from previous mishaps.