What's new in PowerPoint 2013-1 - Start screen 2

So how can you prevent PowerPoint from showing you the start screen?

Open a new blank presentation - Go to File - Options - General options - under Start up options - uncheck the option Show the Start screen when this application starts.

That should do it.

Of course if you want to keep the start screen but discard it quickly without changing the default behaviour, just press Escape after starting PowerPoint.