Ctrl-Alt-Del Was Mistake

[icyfroth]

Hundreds of millions of people around the world, including virtually everyone who has ever used a Windows device, have had to memorise the key command "control-alt-delete". In retrospect, that was probably unnecessary, Microsoft co-founded Bill Gates revealed in a talk at Harvard last week.

The crowd laughed as Gates shifted his weight and scratched his ear sheepishly. His response began with some hemming and hawing, but he eventually wound his way to a straight answer.

"Basically, because when you turn your computer on, you're going to see some screens and eventually type your password in, you want to have something you do with the keyboard that is signalling to a very low level of the software – actually, hard-coded in the hardware – that it really is bringing in the operating system you expect," said Gates.

"So we could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button. And so we had, we programmed at a low level that you had to – it was a mistake."

The guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button. There, in a nutshell, is one big trade-off Microsoft made by partnering with third-party hardware firms rather than building its own computers, as Apple did. The strategy paid off handsomely, as Microsoft's operating systems became the global standard. But it wasn't without its downsides. Can you imagine Steve Jobs requiring users to perform such a wonky key command before they could begin to use an Apple device?

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I have no problem with the ctrl alt del, but maybe that's because I've been using it for so long. Anyone?

[the_great_she_elephant]

The worst ever button was on the old microbee - the computer I first used for my writing. It had a 'reset' button that sat right next to the shift key. There was no automatic 'save' on the word processing program either and many a time I'd go to hit the shift key and lose a whole page of painstakingly created text. The worst thing was after you'd done it you could still see the text on the screen, but there was absolutely no way of 'retrieving' it..

[the_hawk*]

Why do you use the "control-alt-delete" function?

the only time I use that is on the very rare occasions I manage to have that  many things open and it freezes the computer and I need to access the Task Manager to manually shut down programs instead of hitting the reset button

[icyfroth]

I use it to start up my work computer, not my home computer though.

[the_hawk*]

Ohh I just use the button on the front

[bright.ton42]

Are you talking about Apples, Icy?  Do they have to start with Ctr-Alt-del? 

Like you on my PC I only use it to close down programs that are stuck.  

[monman12]

I am with TH on this one, I use CAD to  circumvent freezes, view (and somtimes shut down) applications also processes, and check performance.

nɥºɾ

[happyroo_bunji]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

The worst ever button was on the old microbee - the computer I first used for my writing. It had a 'reset' button that sat right next to the shift key. There was no automatic 'save' on the word processing program either and many a time I'd go to hit the shift key and lose a whole page of painstakingly created text. The worst thing was after you'd done it you could still see the text on the screen, but there was absolutely no way of 'retrieving' it..

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oh lordy! a microbee! I remember learning to type on those things in high school. I preferred the amstrad 286 that my dad paid about $4000 for. This was back in the days before windows 🙂

[icyfroth]

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@bright.ton42 wrote:

Are you talking about Apples, Icy?  Do they have to start with Ctr-Alt-del? 

No apparently Apple just has a single key to start up with, Bright. I wouldn't know I've never used an Apple.

Like you on my PC I only use it to close down programs that are stuck.

Yes I do that as well, but with my work computer I have to Crtl Alt Del to start up Microsoft. 

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[carls*world]

Our old work systems (Wyse) started up with "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to log in"

On doing that, it presented the little grey window for logging on.