Ctrl + Alt + Del Was A Mistake: Bill Gates | TechTree.com

Ctrl + Alt + Del Was A Mistake: Bill Gates

The Microsoft founder reveals he wanted a single button.

 

The ubiquitous three finger salute, "Ctrl + Alt + Del" was apparently a mistake, Bill Gates revealed in a recent interview at the Harvard University.

The "Ctrl + Alt + Del" combination, as most will remember from back in Windows DOS days, is well known to reboot a frozen PC. This in fact, was meant to be a single key, "but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button. So what we had, we programmed at a low level. It was a mistake", Gates said. The IBM engineer David Bradley came up with the mechanism, which at first intended it to be Ctrl + Alt + Esc, but quickly settled for Del as it requires two handed operation, and is difficult to hit by mistake, as reported by TheRegister.

We are happy that Microsoft expanded on this combo further, which now lets users log into Windows with sensitive information such as username and passwords, along with other handy options. The hard-coded Ctrl-Alt-Del ensures that you aren't responding to a log on screen manipulated by rogue/malicious software.

Do check out the full Bill Gates interview at Harvard University below:

 


TAGS: Microsoft, Security

 
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