Cause : The add-in was quarantined by over-zealous anti-virus software during installation.

We are aware that HP Sure Sense is one cause of this behaviour and you can either restore or add the file as trusted as per the instructions in the HP Sure Sense user guide or uninstall the software. If this happens with any other AV vendor’s software, please contact us as our software is malware and virus free but every now and then, an anti-virus app can trigger a false detection.

Fix

If you contact us with the name of the AV vendor and a screenshot of the false positive detection, we will contact the AV vendor to have the detection removed.

In parallel, you may be able to un-quarantine the BrightSlide.ppam add-in component in the AV application and/or an an exception to the allowed list.

You see the message below and when trying to register BrightSlide:

Note the six pairs of characters from the black title bar above for your computer (the MAC address). In this example it’s “78:31:C1:BE:AD:E6”

Cause A : Windows OS Reset

You may be using a computer that was previously assigned to another user or a computer that has had the Windows operating system reinstalled. In these cases, BrightSlide may not have been deregistered from our server but the registration information has been erased from the computer. To fix this case, please contact us with the MAC address from your screenshot as in the example above with a request to reset the associated BrightSlide licence.

Cause B: Duplicate MAC address

BrightSlide uses a unique identifier for your computer called the MAC address which comes from the hardware you use to connect to your network. This may be a WiFi connection, Ethernet or one of many virtual machine solutions from the likes of Cisco, Parallels, VMWare, Oracle VirtualBox etc. In some cases, the MAC address is not unique and this fools BrightSlide into thinking that your computer is the same as another user’s. In this case, please contact us with the text output from the following steps:

1. In Windows Start, type cmd and click Command Prompt when it appears.
2. Type getmac /v /fo list and press the Enter key.
3. Select the text in the window and press Enter to copy it to your clipboard.
4. Paste the results into our contact us form with a request to register a new VPN/VM vendor.

We will analyse the results and update the product accordingly. In parallel, you can force BrightSlide to ignore your VPN or virtual machine MAC address as follows:

1. In Windows Start, type reg and click Registry Editor when it appears.
2. Navigate to this key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\VB and VBA Program Settings\BrightSlide\Preferences
3. With the Preferences key selected in the left hand tree view, click Edit / New / String Value
4. Type the name as Ignore MAC Prefix and press Enter
5. Press Enter again to edit the value data
6. Type the first three pairs of characters (which identify the equipment vendor) from your MAC address above e.g. 78:31:C1 and press Enter to finish
7. Try to register BrightSlide again

You see the message below and after clicking OK, BrightSlide does not appear in the ribbon.

Cause

The add-in can’t be found on your system. This may be because it’s been deleted or moved. This can happen if the add-in is installed for a different user profile and the accounts are switched or if the add-in is quarantined by over-zealous anti-virus software. If the later happens, please contact us as our software is malware and virus free but every now and then, an anti-virus app can trigger a false detection.

Fix

Reinstall BrightSlide. If this doesn’t fix the issue, please contact us.

After installing, the BrightSlide it doesn’t appear in the ribbon.

Cause A

You were required by your IT policy to enter admin credentials during the installation which activated the add-in for the admin profile while PowerPoint uses the user profile.

Cause B

You clicked on a PowerPoint file to open PowerPoint. This is a bug that has been reported to Microsoft.

Cause C

Your IT admin has set a Group Policy setting to disable all custom user interface extensions in both macro-enabled files and application add-ins.

Fix A

Activate the add-in manually as follows:

1. In PowerPoint, click File / Options / Add-ins

2. At the bottom of the window that opens, change the Manage drop down to PowerPoint Add-ins

3. Click the Go… button

4. Click the Add New… button

5. Navigate from the folder that opens to BrightCarbon\BrightSlide

6. Select the BrightSlide add-in (.ppam)

7. Click the OK button

8. Click the Close button

Fix B

Start PowerPoint from the application icon and then use File / Open to open your file.

Fix C

You can verify that this is the case by first enabling the Office-wide setting Show add-in user interface errors which in PowerPoint can be accessed via File / Options / Advanced and scrolling all the away to the bottom. When you restart PowerPoint, you will see this message:

If this is the case then you will need to ask your IT to change the Group Policy for this setting:

Administrative Templates | Microsoft Office 2016 | Global Options | Customize | Disable UI extending from documents and templates

You enabled Productivity Shortcuts and now PowerPoint crashes each time you try to start it.

Cause

This is a known issue on some specific PCs which we’re working on a permanent fix for.

Fix

The temporary fix is to disable the Productivity Shortcuts by changing one setting in the Windows Registry. This can be done by downloading and running this reg file: right-click and select Save Link As. Note that you may be prompted for administrator credentials.

Various buttons and controls don’t appear as designed, making it difficult to use the features, even if they are not directly affected:

Cause

BrightSlide uses the Segoe MDL2 Assets font for many of the interactive elements across its windows in the user interface. This font is shipped by Microsoft from Windows 10 onwards. Users on Windows 7 and earlier will not see the UI as it’s supposed to be displayed. For example, check boxes, spin controls, [X] to close windows will appear “corrupt”.

Fix

The ultimate fix is to upgrade to Windows 10! You may be able to source the missing font from a third party site but since it’s licensed as part of Windows 10 the Microsoft store will not allow you to download it from here.

If you use the third party Power-user add-in, the My Animations feature of BrightSlide doesn’t work. This is evident when you click the drop down menu and the Power-user tab is activated so you never get to see your animations library.

Cause

By default, the Power-user add-in has been designed to activate its ribbon tab every time a PowerPoint file is opened. The My Animation feature in BrightSlide opens your library file when you click the drop down menu and Power-user takes control.

Fix

There is an option in Power-user to prevent this from happening. Go to Power-user settings and uncheck the option “Power-user is the default tab”.