It may depend on the SAS environment you are using.
I am pretty familiar with the ancient Display Manager window. In that the SYSTEM Color is when you want to use one of the system colors for a specific area. That means select the Window Element in the first list, such as Background or Border. You can either select the shown colors (dating back to VGA basically) OR set one of the System colors. If the SYSTEM color definition of Background, Foreground or Secondary Background are changed then all of the windows defined with the system colors would have the changed setting.
Which window element and what it means is documented in the section of online help "Using Base SAS Software in the Windowing Environment" in the topic "Changing SAS Windowing Environment Options"
into links.
Window Elements and Their Descriptions
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Window Element
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Description
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Background
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Specifies the background color for all primary windows that are displayed in a SAS session.
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Secondary Background
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Specifies the background color for all secondary windows that are displayed in a SAS session.
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Border
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Specifies the color and attribute for the border of a primary window.
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Secondary Border
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Specifies the color and attribute for the border of a secondary window.
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Banner
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Specifies the banner color and attribute within a window. The banner is the text that is used to signify the command line prompt 'Command==>'.
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Command
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Specifies the color and attribute of the command data entry field that is displayed when the PMENU bar is disabled.
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Message
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Specifies the color and attribute of the message line.
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Error
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Specifies the color and attribute of Error lines that are written to the SAS Log window or Output window.
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Warning
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Specifies the color and attribute of WARNING lines that are written to the SAS log.
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Note
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Specifies the color and attribute of Note lines that are written to the SAS log.
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Foreground
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Specifies the color and attribute for all text and text fields that you can edit that are defined within SAS windowing environment windows.
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Label
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Specifies the color and attribute for text that typically precedes a widget.
The default label that precedes a field in the FSEDIT procedure is an example of a label.
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Row Label
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Specifies the color and attribute for ROW information.
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Informational Text
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Specifies the color and attribute for text that is displayed in a primary or secondary window as an aid to the user.
'Press Enter to continue' is an example of informational text.
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Column Label
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Specifies the color and attribute for the text labels that are used for COLUMNAR information.
Primarily, this element is used to label the spreadsheet columns or column labels (for tabular-formed fields) of spreadsheet-oriented windows.
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Help Main Topic
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Specifies the color and attribute of the header that describes the general subject matter of a Help window.
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Help Subtopic and Syntax
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Specifies the color and attribute for the text that is displayed below the Help Main Topic header (when applicable) and the syntax.
The Help subtopic describes the specific subject matter of the Help window.
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Help Link
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Specifies the color and attribute that are displayed for a hyperlink word or phrase.
The hyperlink word or phrase that is selected displays detailed information about the topic that is referenced in the hyperlink.
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Selected Area
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Specifies the color and attribute of the area that is marked or selected for additional operations, such as find, cut, and copy.
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Source
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Specifies the color and attribute of SAS SOURCE lines that are written to the SAS log.
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Data
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Specifies the color and attribute of general lines that are written to the SAS log or Output window.
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Footnote
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Specifies the color and attribute information for FOOTNOTE lines that are written to the SAS Output window.
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Title
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Specifies the color and attribute information for TITLE lines that are written to the SAS Output window.
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Header
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Specifies the color and attribute information for HEADER lines that are written to the SAS Output window.
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Byline
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Specifies the color and attribute for BY lines that are written to the SAS Output window.
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Not all windows have all the options. So the list that appears for a specific window so is often shorter than the above list.
I would suggest looking in you SAS install for the source of the macros Dm608clr.sas and Dmcolors.
In my Windows install the folder is C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\core\sasmacro
These two macro show Display Manager syntax for setting some of the colors for some of the windows. Note that these files date back to about 1994 and you are likely not to have all of the windows in a recent install. The syntax is basically issue a DM command to open a window followed by several COLOR commands with the window element and the desired color and ends with a WSAVE command to keep the colors set persistent.
You may be able to have the window open and in the command box enter commands such as:
Color Background Pink
and press enter to execute the command and change the displayed color. However the color names available will be quite restricted.
