Powerpoint content add-in on Windows just show an image in slide show mode instead of a web app

Question

I developed a powerpoint content addin and it works fine on Mac. Then I test it on Windows and found out that when I go to slide show mode, Powerpoint just show an image (a snapshot at the time entering to slide mode) instead of a web app. There is no interaction to the addin on slide show mode, clicking on it just make it move to the next slide. The addin works fine in edit mode though.

Strangely, this behaviour is not the same for all Powerpoint (2016) on Windows. I tested on another Windows laptop and everything works just fine. So I wonder if there is a settings or something for this, but I cannot figure out.

My addin shows the data changing overtime, animation, etc, so showing a static image is just useless.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Update 3/28/18

In response to the comments to this answer I've been in touch with the product team. It has now been determined that there is still an unfixed bug that causes these symptoms in some versions/builds/flight-configurations of PowerPoint. We are not able to provide an estimate of when it will be fixed. In the meantime, we cannot support interactive content add-ins in slide show mode in Windows.

-- Original Answer Below --

Update 10/18/17:

Just want to close the loop on this question.

It is possible for Office to behave differently on different computers even when the OS and Office version are the same, right down to the build number. Office pushes incremental code changes, called "flights", to desktop Office (Click-to-Run) approximately monthly without raising the Office build number.

Some of these flights are bug fixes. Others are experiments that are intentionally pushed to only some computers. Even in the case of bug fixes, the flights don't get pushed to all machines at the same time. It might take over a week for a flight to be pushed to all computers. (Strictly speaking, all computers with an Office build that supports the flight.)

The problem described in this question was a result of a bug in PowerPoint. A flight to fix it was deployed, but it had been pushed to only some of the OP's computers at the time (s)he posted the question. It has since been pushed to all computers.