System Settings

Last modified: 03 December 2021

File | Settings | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings for Windows and Linux

PhpStorm | Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings for macOS

Ctrl+Alt+S


Confirm before exiting the IDE	Show a dialog with a confirmation when you attempt to close PhpStorm.
When closing a tool window with a running process	Select what to do with the running process: Terminate process: stop the process entirely. Disconnect: leave the process running but disconnect from it. Ask: show a dialog with actions to choose from.

Confirm before exiting the IDE

Show a dialog with a confirmation when you attempt to close PhpStorm.

When closing a tool window with a running process

Select what to do with the running process:


Reopen projects on startup	Open all projects that were open when you closed PhpStorm last time.
Open project in	Select where you want to open projects: New window: open every project in a separate window. Current window: close the current project and open the new one in the same window. Ask: show a dialog with actions to choose from.
Default project directory	Specify the default location for projects. PhpStorm suggests this directory when you create a new project or want to open an existing project.

Reopen projects on startup

Open all projects that were open when you closed PhpStorm last time.

Open project in

Select where you want to open projects:

New window: open every project in a separate window.
Current window: close the current project and open the new one in the same window.
Ask: show a dialog with actions to choose from.

Default project directory

Specify the default location for projects. PhpStorm suggests this directory when you create a new project or want to open an existing project.


Save files if the IDE is idle for	Save all modified files at regular time intervals.
Save files when switching to a different application or a built-in terminal	Save all modified files when you switch from PhpStorm to a different application. note You cannot disable autosave completely by disabling these options. For more information, see Write and edit source code.
Back up files before saving	Before saving the file, create a backup. If the save operation is successful, PhpStorm deletes the backup. If not, it restores the contents of the original file from backup. This behavior is known as "safe write", and it prevents losing your file in case of a faulty save operation.
Synchronize external changes when switching to the IDE window or opening an editor tab	Reload externally changed files when you switch to PhpStorm from a different application, or when you switch to the corresponding editor tabs.

System Settings﻿