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Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Animations or Video Displaying Poorly?

SUMMARY: An old graphics card or poorly-implemented driver may be causing display problems for your PowerPoint 2010 presentations. Learn how to switch to software-based rendering for increased compatibility.

In some situations, a complex Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 presentation with videos, transitions, and animations may display poorly on a computer with an older or non-standard video card. This may be due to the fact that PowerPoint is trying to use the graphics card's hardware-based acceleration features, but these are not implemented correctly.

If updating your video card's drivers (if applicable) does not solve video and animation problems, you may wish to turn hardware acceleration off in PowerPoint. Note that doing so may slow down videos or animations, especially if you have other processes running.

In some instances PowerPoint may warn you that it is automatically temporarily turning off hardware acceleration due to detected problems. If you cannot fix the underlying problems, changing this configuration option should at least keep these messages from reappearing.



1. Select the "File" tab in the Ribbon.


2. The Microsoft Office Backstage View appears. Click the "Options" button.


(Or instead of steps 1 and 2, press Alt + T, then the letter O.)

3. The "PowerPoint Options" dialog box appears. Click "Advanced" in the left pane.


4. Underneath "Display", check "Disable hardware graphics acceleration".

5. Click "OK" on the bottom-right of the dialog box to close it.

Return to the Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 page.

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