The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#1

Post by shill » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 2:55 PM UTC

The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete
m.mentalfloss.com

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#2

Post by speeder » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 3:31 PM UTC

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed...

These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#3

Post by mjn » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 3:32 PM UTC

And yet, few of these consumers were aware of Bradley’s shortcut quietly lingering in their machines. It wasn’t until the early 1990s, when Microsoft’s Windows took off, that the shortcut came to prominence.

In an indirect sense it came to prominence in the 1980s, but via Apple. Apple borrowed the CTRL + ALT + DEL soft-reset idea by adding a CTRL + OPEN APPLE + RESET soft-reset functionality to the IIe (the 1983 upgrade of the Apple II series). That became fairly well-known, even (or perhaps especially) among schoolkids.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#4

Post by Nav_Panel » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 3:46 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #2

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed... These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

In Windows, I generally just default to CTRL+SHIFT+ESC which immediately brings up the Task Manager. At work, I'll use WINKEY+L to lock the machine. It's very rare that I actually need to use the CTRL+ALT+DELETE key combination.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#5

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:11 PM UTC

What about the CTRL-Left Amiga-Right Amiga on the Amiga systems?!

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#6

Post by Aardwolf » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

Hmm, it's a very long time ago that I pressed that key combination. I tried it out, and apparently it is wired to the Logout function of KDE...

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#7

Post by stinos » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #2

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed... These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

I'd rather say it's was the crashy software running on top of Windows that made it famous. Can't even remember last time I needed to use it for a Windows component itself.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#8

Post by mnemonicsloth » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:19 PM UTC

Bradley -- Dr. Bradley -- taught my section of Digital Logic Design at NC State. Ace the final and he'd autograph your keyboard.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#9

Post by undershirt » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:22 PM UTC

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC does what CTRL+ALT+DEL used to do -- goes straight to the task manager.

CMD+ALT+ESC on mac, btw.

Re: The History of Ctrl + Alt + Delete

#10

Post by MasterScrat » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:32 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #2

Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed... These days of windows 8 I still have to use it regularly because of freezing programs and OS issues.

> Bill made it famous with his crashy software that made knowing it needed...

And he doesn't seem too proud of it ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGQsBDSEpk