Microsoft Word saves your document’s changes automatically, which helps you restore the file in case of power failure or so. However, if you do not want to allocate more resources to allow Word to do that, you can disable Background Saves. It is possible to do that with the help of the Word Options panel, Local Group Policy Editor, and Registry Editor.
What does Allow Background Saves in Word mean?
If you turn on the Background saves in Word, Microsoft Word will automatically save a soft copy of the document on your disk automatically as you continue to write. It helps you restore the file or revert a change in case of power failure or so. You can enable or disable this setting with the help of any of these three methods.
How to enable or disable Background Saves in Word
To enable or disable Background Saves in Word, follow these steps:
- Open Microsoft Word on your computer.
- Click on the File > Options.
- Switch to the Advanced tab.
- Head to the Save section.
- Tick the Allow background saves checkbox to enable.
- Remove the tick from the Allow background saves checkbox to disable.
- Click the OK button.
To learn more about these steps, continue reading.
First, you need to open Microsoft Word on your computer and click on the Options menu visible in the bottom-left corner. However, if you have already opened Microsoft Word, you need to click on the File to find the Options.
Once in the Word Options panel, you need to switch to the Advanced tab and head to the Save section. Here you can find a setting called Allow background saves.
To enable the background saves, you need to tick this checkbox. However, if you want to disable background saves, remove the tick from the corresponding checkbox.
Finally, click the OK button to save the change.
How to enable or disable Background Saves in Word using Group Policy
To enable or disable background saves in Word using Group Policy, follow these steps:
- Press Win+R to open the Run dialog.
- Type gpedit.msc and click the OK button.
- Navigate to Microsoft Word 2016 > Word Options > Advanced in User Configuration.
- Double-click on the Allow background saves setting.
- Choose the Enabled option to enable.
- Choose the Disabled option to disable.
- Click the OK button to save the change.
- Restart the Microsoft Word app.
Let’s check out these steps in detail to learn more.
First, you need to open the Local Group Policy Editor on your computer. For that, press Win+R to open the Run dialog, type gpedit.msc, and click the OK button.
Once it is opened on your computer, navigate to the following path:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Word 2016 > Word Options > Advanced
Here you can find a setting called Allow background saves. To enable background saves, you need to double-click on this setting and choose the Enabled option.
Similarly, if you want to disable background saves, choose the Disabled option. Either way, you need to click the OK button to save the change and restart the Microsoft Word app to apply the change.
Note: If you want to revert to the original setting, you need to open the same setting and choose the Not Configured option.
How to turn on or off Background Saves in Word using Registry
To turn on or off background saves in Word using Registry, follow these steps:
- Search for regedit and click on the search result.
- Click the Yes button.
- Navigate to Microsoft\office\16.0 in HKCU.
- Right-click on 0 > New > Key and name it as word.
- Right-click on word > New > Key and name it as options.
- Right-click on options > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Set the name as backgroundsave.
- Set the Value data as 1 to enable.
- Keep the Value data as 0 to disable.
- Click the OK button and restart your computer.
Let’s delve into these steps in detail.
To get started, search for regedit in the Taskbar search box, click on the individual search result and click the Yes button to open the Registry Editor on your computer.
Then, navigate to this path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0
Right-click on 16.0 > New > Key and set the name as word. Then, right-click on word > New > Key and name it as options.
Then, you need to create a REG_DWORD value. For that, right-click on options > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as backgroundsave.
By default, it comes with a Value data of 0. If you want to disable background saves, you need to keep that value data. However, if you want to enable background saves, double-click on it and set the Value data as 1.
Finally, click the OK button and restart your computer to apply the change.
Read: How to disable Text Drag and Drop feature in Word and PowerPoint
How do I turn off AutoSave in Word?
To turn off AutoSave in Word, you need to open the Word Options panel first. Then, switch to the Save tab on the left side. Here you can find a setting named AutoSave OneDrive and SharePoint Online files by default in Word. You need to uncheck this box and click the OK button.
Read: How to always open PDF files in Protected View in Word.
