Enabling Clickable PowerPoint Actions

by Apr 10, 2020

Using clickable actions in PowerPoint presentations can be super useful to launch Visual Studio Code or PowerShell ISE, and seamlessly open and demo PowerShell code.

However, for security reasons, launching programs via inserted “Action” items is prohibited by default, and there is no easy way to enable it. What’s more, even when you do enable this feature, PowerPoint will revert it back to protected mode after a short period of time.

Here is a quick PowerShell script that you can run right before your presentation to make sure all clickable “Action” items in fact are launching things.

$path = 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint\Security'
Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name RunPrograms -Value 1 -Type DWord

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