The History of CTRL + ALT + DELETE

[longknife]

I know it’s there but don’t think I’ve ever used it. If it comes down to it, I always go to the start menu and restart there.

In 2013, Bill Gates admitted ctrl+alt+del was a mistake and blamed IBM. Here’s the story of how the key combination became famous in the first place.

And here’s the culprit:

(David) Bradley worked on everything from writing input/output programs to troubleshooting wire-wrap boards. Five months into the project, he created ctrl+alt+del. The task was just another item to tick off his to-do list. “It was five minutes, 10 minutes of activity, and then I moved on to the next of the 100 things that needed to get done,” he says. Bradley chose the keys by location—with the del key across the keyboard from the other two, it seemed unlikely that all three would be accidentally pressed at the same time. Bradley never intended to make the shortcut available to customers, nor did he expect it to enter the pop lexicon. It was meant for him and his fellow coders, for whom every second counted.

Much more @ The History of CTRL + ALT + DELETE - Mental Floss - Pocket

 

[Wuwei]

In a moment of nostalgia I just pressed CTRL + ALT + DELETE. I had not done that for at least a decade.

 

[the other mike]

Thanks. I always thought that was a strange feature.

 

[Wuwei]

Are you old enough to remember the dreaded old Windows OS box with the three buttons. It sometimes came when you tried to store your work on a floppy.

Abort ... Retry ... Ignore.

.

 

[depotoo]

I have used it often through the years.