Quote Originally Posted by Killian
Short answer: you can't.
The file that you start with is opened from C:\WINDOWS\SHELLNEW\PWRPNTxx.POT (where xx is your Office version). What you can do, is edit this POT so your initial template is a little more appealing. You could rename one one your existing templates and overwrite this original so you start up with something useful to you but what you can't do is delete it... PowerPoint gets upset, tries to re-install and if you cancel this, bombs out with a fatal error. Strange but true...
Jake, thanks. The is in the details. I don't double click largely due to the fact that my anal retentive accounting background has made a folder structure with more level's than Dante's trip through hell. Handy in most cases, but not if I want to launch my PPT's.

Killian, thanks as well. At least now I know it isn't my lack of familiarity with PPT causing the problem; just another FEATURE that M$ has forced upon me. Oh well. I'll just do what I've been doing.

Thanks again for the replies.