The AUTOSAVELOC option that was introduced in SAS®9, applies only to files that are opened in the Program Editor window and not to files that are opened in the Enhanced Editor window. This option specifies the location to save a backup copy of the file that is currently in the Program Editor window.

This option can be defined at startup or on an OPTIONS statement. To define it at startup, you can add the following line to the c:\program files\sas\sas 9.1\nls\en\SASv9.cfg file:

Then the file, PGM.ASV, will be created in the location specified above instead of the ‘current folder’, which is the default. The ‘current folder’ is displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the SAS window.

By default, SAS saves a backup copy of the files that are in the editor windows every 10 minutes. To change the time interval, click Tools>Options>Preferences. Then, click the Edit tab and change the number of minutes. This time interval affects the Program Editor and the Enhanced Editor.

See SAS KB0036195 for further information on the default location and name of the backup files for the Enhanced Editor windows.

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