Forum Discussion
AutoSave feature causing frustration
HI Marli van Staden.
First of all, before editing the registry be EXTREMELY careful!
If you make a mistake you can render the machine unusable.
(You should also make a backup of the registry before modifying it.)
All this said, if you want to try, you have to ADD the "DontAutoSave" key inside "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel". The key type should be DWORD and its value should be 1.
Also, as an introduction to editing the registry, you can give a look to https://www.howtogeek.com/school/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro/lesson5/
Hope it helps...
Not sure to understand what you mean...
That method completely (i.e. globally) disables the AutoSave feature for the relevant app (namely, Word, Excel and PowerPoint). Hence when afterward you will open an old file, no AutoSave at all will be performed, and this holds true for EVERY file.
So, edit the registry and, just to be sure, reboot the machine. From that moment on, the behavior of the relevant app should be exactly the same as it was before the AutoSave feature was introduced.
Hope it helps...
Ah sorry, I see now - I only looked as far as the Summary where it says
'This feature applies to each document. It can't be disabled on the application level.'
I have now followed the steps lower down on the link, but once I get here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel
I can't find 'DontAutoSave'...I can only see something labelled 'AutoSaveInterval'.
(Admittedly this is my first time hanging out in the registry, so I have no clue what I am doing...
HI Marli van Staden.
First of all, before editing the registry be EXTREMELY careful!
If you make a mistake you can render the machine unusable.
(You should also make a backup of the registry before modifying it.)
All this said, if you want to try, you have to ADD the "DontAutoSave" key inside "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel". The key type should be DWORD and its value should be 1.
Also, as an introduction to editing the registry, you can give a look to https://www.howtogeek.com/school/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro/lesson5/
Hope it helps...
Thank you - that makes sense...although it sounds risky for a novice like me to start dabbling in the registry. Perhaps I will wait and see if Microsoft creates a 'safer' solution sometime soon :)
It's not really as difficult as it sounds.
- Click on the circle beside the Windows Start button in lower left corner - it's the Cortina icon. Or you may have a box that says "Type here to Search"
- Enter "regedit" - this should open the registry editor.
- If you want, click on File/Export to backup your registry. I would recommend backing it up to an external device (SD card or memory stick). Make sure the Export range option at the bottom is set to "All".
- Now just click on the folders to expand the path to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\
- Then Select Excel, Word or Powerpoint
- Click on menu Edit/New/Dword(32 bit)
- A new REG_DWORD will show up called "New Value #1"
- Change the name to "DontAutoSave".
- Select that new DWORD and double click or hit enter.
- Value box will appear. Change Value from 0 to 1. Hit OK.
