Interesting "feature" in PowerPoint Viewer 2010
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When run in slow motion (such as in a VM allocated limited CPU time), this happens before a file is opened:
(Windows XP in a VM, with no internet connection 
)
What gives? Whoever converted the PowerPoint binary to the Viewer binary did a somewhat shoddy job. Granted, this won't show up at normal speed (but then again, one could conceivably edit the program with a hex editor or something to get full PowerPoint for free). I also have a screen recording of this, which I'll conceivably edit and add here.
Although said viewer is now retired, downloads are still available if you know where to look.
Any thoughts?
Comments
Given the file size of the installer, I can't imagine all of those features actually work. It was probably either an oversight or just cheaper (in terms of man hours) to modify things from full PowerPoint and leave the menu in. Removing the menu, for example, might have caused bugs that they didn't want to spend time tracking down.
This reminds me of how video card companies used to (maybe still do?) disable components on high-end video cards in order to sell them as low-end cards. It was cheaper to have one production line than to produce two different products.
The problem with Microsoft’s office products is that they are so insanely complicated, and how “documents” can dig themselves in to all kinds of programmatic features, that the only way to make a “viewer” is to give the user the full freaking product. Basically, it is the exact same program, differentiated only by license keys. The “viewer” mode then simply disables things like editor UIs or things users could use to build a document. The viewer will also omit most external components such as wizards and templates.
True. In fact, on a real copy of PowerPoint 2010, the Reader mode looks identical to the PowerPoint Viewer viewing a presentation. The only difference is a few toolbar buttons that MS removed in the viewer.