A SAS session in which you use the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) engine to create or read a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Word document can stop responding when certain applications are running in the background. Some of the applications that can cause SAS to stop responding include the following:

• Google Chrome
• System Mechanic Active Care Software
• Lync 2013
• Outlook 2013
• Spotify
• Logitech Setpoint
• Symantec Endpoint Protection
• VMware View Agent 6.0
• Adobe CEF Helper
• Office 365
• Skype For Business

The SAS DDE engine is a tool that passes commands to Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word in order to read or write Excel files or Word documents. Many third-party applications like the ones listed above do not properly process or respond to DDE messages. This might cause your SAS session to stop responding.

A change that was provided by Microsoft has been implemented in the SAS DDE engine as a workaround to a known legacy issue with the Microsoft DDE system. If a third-party application does not respond in a timely manner to the DDE messages that are being passed, the operating system now ignores the third-party application with regard to the DDE messaging system. This prevents your SAS session from hanging when you read or write Excel files or Word documents. This change also causes slower performance of your SAS programs when you use the DDE engine.

The workaround prior to the change that was provided by Microsoft was to close the third-party application that was causing your SAS session to stop responding.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS User Interface 9.4_M3 is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS User Interface 9.4_M2 is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3_M2 is available at: