Support for SAS on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Microsoft Windows 8 has been with us for a year, and its first major update -- Windows 8.1 -- has just arrived. So how does SAS support these Windows 8 platforms?

The answer can be found on support.sas.com in SAS Note 46876. I'll summarize it here: SAS 9.3 and SAS 9.4 are supported on Windows 8 and 8.1, as well as on Windows Server 2012. SAS 9.4 has been supported since its initial release in July 2013. SAS 9.3 requires a baseline version of 9.3 Maint 2, revision 13w18 (April 2013) or later. (That's primarily due to the additional support for Java 7, which is required for SAS use on Windows 8.)

SAS Enterprise Guide 5.1 and 6.1 are also supported on Windows 8/8.1. The same holds true for the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office 5.1 and 6.1. Windows 8.1 adds Internet Explorer 11 to the mix, which should perform fine for your web-based SAS applications. The browser support matrix is tricky to keep up with since browsers rev often, and it usually happens "out-of-band" with operating system updates. If your browser flavor/version isn't listed as supported that doesn't mean it won't work, but it does mean that SAS R&D hasn't "certified" it as compatible with SAS web applications. It's best to check third-party product details on support.sas.com for updates and limitations.

Initially, SAS 9.4 and SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1 were available only in 64-bit versions. That's a limitation for some customers who aren't yet ready for "64-bit Everything", so SAS will release 32-bit versions of these products near the end of this year. Here's SAS Note 51786 with the details.

To explore further combinations of operating systems and SAS products, visit the interactive Supported Operating Systems page.