How to Recover an Overwritten PPT

By Jason Spidle

Finding a key does not require editing the Windows Registry.
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Microsoft PowerPoint is a slide show program bundled with the Microsoft Office suite. Files saved using Microsoft PowerPoint are stored using the PPT file extension. If you accidentally find that you have overwritten a saved PowerPoint file that you need to restore, you will be happy to know that Microsoft Windows includes an easy-to-use wizard for restoring files to previous versions. This feature is only available to Business and Ultimate users of Windows. If you use a personal copy of Windows, then you will need to rely on System Restore to recover an overwritten PowerPoint file.

Recover a PowerPoint PPT File with Previous Versions

Step 1

Navigate to the file location of the overwritten PowerPoint file using Windows Explorer.

Step 2

Right-click on the current file and select "Properties."

Step 3

Select the "Previous Versions" tab.

Step 4

Select a version of the PowerPoint file before the document was overwritten.

Step 5

Click "Restore" to recover the file as it was previously named or select "Copy" to create a new file name if you would like to keep the overwritten file.

Recover a PowerPoint PPT File with System Restore

Step 1

Launch System Restore by selecting "Start," "Programs" "Accessories" "System Tools" "System Restore."

Step 2

Select a point prior to when the PowerPoint was overwritten and then click "Next."

Step 3

Click "Finish" to begin the restore process. You will be prompted to restart your computer. This should restore the file to its previous state.

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