Bill Gates Regrets Control-Alt-Delete Key Command

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monkeymagick

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Quartz reports that the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates now regrets popularizing the ctrl-alt-del key command. This is not the first time he has admitted the sentiment. He was grilled recently at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum by co-founder and CEO David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group.

View his shame

"You can't go back and change the small things in your life without putting the other things at risk," Gates said.
 
How often do people even press ctrl-alt-del that this is an issue? Mostly for enterprise log ins and to open task manager when an app has died and you can't access the task bar, that's worth complaining to BG about?
 
What's wrong with the key combo? I have to press ctrl+shift+esc for task manager, where are the complaints about that one?
Not that I am complaining, what else would be better combos?

Edit: It seems this article was about some mac users complaining how it only takes one key to bring up the login prompt for mac, but three whole keys for windows?
"An earlier version of this post stated that ctrl+alt+delete turns on a PC."

and
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/20/technology/bill-gates-control-alt-delete/index.html
""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," Gates said at a Harvard University event at the time.


Users can press a single key to log in -- not three -- on Apple's Mac computers"
 
I'm perfectly content with the current Ctrl Alt Del combo. I get mad enough when i forget to turn off the Microsoft key and accidently hit it in game. One button to log me off would infuriate me.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Having a single button logout key would be fucking idiotic. Work work work, whoops accidentally hit the ONE key, now sure it's not as catastrophic as say hitting reset but as others have said why is it such a bad thing?
Click to expand...

Do you not remember the keyboards with the Sleep Wake and Power buttons? Bump one of those and "$#!+" Worse was that, back then, sleep and wake took a fair bit of time to do their thing, and iirc were not very reliable.
 
r00k said:
Do you not remember the keyboards with the Sleep Wake and Power buttons? Bump one of those and "$#!+" Worse was that, back then, sleep and wake took a fair bit of time to do their thing, and iirc were not very reliable.
Click to expand...

They still have them. I have a power button on my wireless keyboard at home and work. Both Logitech wireless keyboards.
 
cthulhuiscool said:
alt tab can occasionally cause headache in games too
Click to expand...

No no no, that FUCKING window key that takes you out of the game and drops you on the desktop while you can still (sometimes) hear the audio of you getting your shit kicked in while frantically trying to alt+tab or click back into the game.

Oh yeah, that happened today, to me, playing Borderlands 2... in the middle of the last fucking fight of the game. Oh I was quite pissed.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Having a single button logout key would be fucking idiotic. Work work work, whoops accidentally hit the ONE key, now sure it's not as catastrophic as say hitting reset but as others have said why is it such a bad thing?
Click to expand...
Oh god, those keyboards with the power/sleep/etc buttons. I used to rip them off. Fucked me off no end accidentally hitting them every now an then, dropping something, whatever.
 
Just run an autohotkey script that disables the windows keys?
I don't use explorer as my desktop environment, but this'll work if you don't want them to do anything:
LWin::Return
RWin::Return
Click to expand...
For those fancy keys, you'll need to look into using the AHKHID library. You'll likely need to uninstall any drivers that come along with your keyboard, then just remap them to do what you want (the script I use for my corsair media keys, send a PM if you want a hand).
 
So his one main regret is [ctrl], [alt] & [del]....

....But all those smaller players in the IT industry that he crushed into dust leaving them broke and destitute was just business....?

Fairly odd morals IMHO.
 
devil22 said:
How often do people even press ctrl-alt-del that this is an issue? Mostly for enterprise log ins and to open task manager when an app has died and you can't access the task bar, that's worth complaining to BG about?
Click to expand...
For taskmanager I pres [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [ESC]
 
cthulhuiscool said:
alt tab can occasionally cause headache in games too
Click to expand...


lol don't remind me.. although that's mostly my fault since i've used alt as my push to talk key since the roger wilco days.. i've tried many times to use a different key but can't do it.
 
BulletDust said:
So his one main regret is [ctrl], [alt] & [del]....

....But all those smaller players in the IT industry that he crushed into dust leaving them broke and destitute was just business....?

Fairly odd morals IMHO.
Click to expand...

Not everyone subscribes to such beliefs. What makes them any different than thousands of other businesses that have to shut up shop when they can't compete? Any business that can't diversify when it's not doing hot in its main field deserves what it gets. Look at apple, they're making a killing because they were smart and captured the phone/tablet market when OS/computers failed them. Google got search, ads, and android. It is possible, so my heart isn't going to bleed (and I wouldn't expect Gates' to either) too much about whoever the hell you're referring to.
 
ChoGGi said:
What's wrong with the key combo? I have to press ctrl+shift+esc for task manager, where are the complaints about that one?
Not that I am complaining, what else would be better combos?

Edit: It seems this article was about some mac users complaining how it only takes one key to bring up the login prompt for mac, but three whole keys for windows?
"An earlier version of this post stated that ctrl+alt+delete turns on a PC."

and
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/20/technology/bill-gates-control-alt-delete/index.html
""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," Gates said at a Harvard University event at the time.


Users can press a single key to log in -- not three -- on Apple's Mac computers"
Click to expand...
Please learn to quote statements correctly. There are no Apple users complaining in this article, it's simply an editorial comment from the writer. Worse, it doesn't even make sense. Logging *in* with one key doesn't have anything to do with ctrl+alt+del, nor is it even accurate unless that one key is "Enter," which is the same key to log in with Windows. Or is he talking about the power button? Who knows...you can't log in or out on a Mac with a single key. The Mac's ctrl+alt+del analog is alt (option) + command + esc and you can't log out from the "task manager."
 
"Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that ctrl+alt+delete turns on a PC. The command has several functions; starting the machine is not one of them."
I was quoting from an article that also came out on the same day (without corrections), and references the same event.
"Users can press a single key to log in -- not three -- on Apple's Mac computers."
I guess it was just the cnn journalist that decided to add that bit, but if you don't want me to slag off macs then I won't (or am I slagging off windows not too sure).

[*] Rustled
 
I understand you were quoting.

When you cite something and that source is quoting someone you need to nest the quotes, like this:
"Bill Gates said, 'I wish I hadn't done that.'

Users can press a single key to log in--not three--on Apple's Mac Computers."

That indicates you are quoting the article's author and the nested quote is Bill Gates' words.
If an Apple user said that sentence it would have had quotes around it. It didn't have any quotes around it indicating it was just the journalist stating it for whatever reasons.
 
devil22 said:
Not everyone subscribes to such beliefs. What makes them any different than thousands of other businesses that have to shut up shop when they can't compete? Any business that can't diversify when it's not doing hot in its main field deserves what it gets. Look at apple, they're making a killing because they were smart and captured the phone/tablet market when OS/computers failed them. Google got search, ads, and android. It is possible, so my heart isn't going to bleed (and I wouldn't expect Gates' to either) too much about whoever the hell you're referring to.
Click to expand...

MS has quite a history, it wasn't a simple matter of companies that 'couldn't compete' and as PC users we're all worse off for it.

For the record, I have no issue with [ctrl], [alt] & [del].
 
IIRC, some versions of the Apple II had a single reset button next to the return/enter key. Maybe the 3 button reset combo was a reaction to dumping a night's worth of Apple II coding before he saved?
 
I was expecting something a little more profound when I first read the title.
 
Like most things in computing, this key combo has a history. Some of you know, before there was ever such a thing as Windows 95, Microsoft and IBM were co-developing the replacement for windows 3.X . This operating system was called OS2. At a point in it's development the relationship between IBM and Microsoft soured and Microsoft backed out and decided to "go their own way". (The result becoming Windows 95). Being the design partner, Microsoft knew full well that there was a specific key combination within OS2, specifically designed to "hard reboot" the operating system. Right now, no questions asked, do not pass go, do not collect $200. (in case of a lockup) Any guesses?

Control + alt + delete.

After the fallout of the cooperation on OS2, to "stick it to the man" Microsoft specifically and intentionally designed that the Windows Task Manager was made to use that very same key combination. The reason is with both OS's out in the wild, people that dealt with both may simply forget if they are on OS2 and would try to bring up task manager to switch between running programs (This was brand new tech at the time, multiple programs running simultaneously) Press that key combo In Windows, you get task manager, but do the same thing in OS2 and you just forced a reboot and crashed the system, period.

There is a reason how I know this, but wish to remain gamefully employed, so we'll just leave it at that. :)
 
SLI_Fallen said:
Like most things in computing, this key combo has a history. Some of you know, before there was ever such a thing as Windows 95, Microsoft and IBM were co-developing the replacement for windows 3.X . This operating system was called OS2. At a point in it's development the relationship between IBM and Microsoft soured and Microsoft backed out and decided to "go their own way". (The result becoming Windows 95). Being the design partner, Microsoft knew full well that there was a specific key combination within OS2, specifically designed to "hard reboot" the operating system. Right now, no questions asked, do not pass go, do not collect $200. (in case of a lockup) Any guesses?

Control + alt + delete.

After the fallout of the cooperation on OS2, to "stick it to the man" Microsoft specifically and intentionally designed that the Windows Task Manager was made to use that very same key combination. The reason is with both OS's out in the wild, people that dealt with both may simply forget if they are on OS2 and would try to bring up task manager to switch between running programs (This was brand new tech at the time, multiple programs running simultaneously) Press that key combo In Windows, you get task manager, but do the same thing in OS2 and you just forced a reboot and crashed the system, period.

There is a reason how I know this, but wish to remain gamefully employed, so we'll just leave it at that. :)
Click to expand...

Ctrl-Alt-Del existed long before OS/2. Before protected mode OS's came around, the PC BIOS handled all keyboard input and forwarded key codes to the OS, unless Ctrl-Alt-Del was pressed in which case the BIOS told the CPU to execute instructions in POST code, effectively rebooting the system. The combo was chosen because it would be hard to unintentionally hit. In protected mode OS's, the BIOS keyboard interrupt routine is replaced so the OS can directly handle the keyboard. In OS/2 Ctrl-Alt-Del is intercepted by the session manager and initiates a proper shutdown rather than an instant reboot, which would have been a natural design choice to make at the time.

OS/2 was a replacement for PC DOS / MS DOS, not Windows 3.x which started development well after OS/2 (1989 vs 1985). Although it's development was part of the reason for the companies falling out. Also, Windows 95 was not the result of MS and IBM falling out on OS/2 development. That would be Windows NT 3.1, which was originally supposed to be OS/2 3.0.


MS didn't choose Ctrl-Alt-Del to "stick it to the man." was used to reboot the system, it was the only key combo guaranteed to not be in use by applications at the time, so it was the perfect choice for invoking a secure login shell.
Ctrl-Alt-Del does not bring up the task manager.
 
STrooperTK421 said:
No no no, that FUCKING window key that takes you out of the game and drops you on the desktop while you can still (sometimes) hear the audio of you getting your shit kicked in while frantically trying to alt+tab or click back into the game.

Oh yeah, that happened today, to me, playing Borderlands 2... in the middle of the last fucking fight of the game. Oh I was quite pissed.
Click to expand...

And now you know why some of us prefer the older, heavier keyboards. I yank those dumb ms keys off just because of that.
 
I agree with those who spoke about the sleep buttons, I usually try to disable that crap but every now and then an update restores it. I'd say even more annoying than the windows key.

I'd also have to say MS have totally dropped the ball with the prtscr key. I was in college when a professor explained how it saved to the clipboard and for almost 10 years(pre-internet) I'd been wondering what the hell it was for. Now if only I cared enough to look up pause/break!
 
viscountalpha said:
And now you know why some of us prefer the older, heavier keyboards. I yank those dumb ms keys off just because of that.
Click to expand...

I'm still using my year 1992 IBM M-class keyboards. I will never change as long as I can still use them.

Regarding the writer whining about having to deal with three buttons, it's the same kind of whining that you'll hear from people who whine that a mouse should only have one button.
 
STrooperTK421 said:
No no no, that FUCKING window key that takes you out of the game and drops you on the desktop while you can still (sometimes) hear the audio of you getting your shit kicked in while frantically trying to alt+tab or click back into the game.

Oh yeah, that happened today, to me, playing Borderlands 2... in the middle of the last fucking fight of the game. Oh I was quite pissed.
Click to expand...
I've never accidentally hit the Windows key. How do you people do it so often that you need to hook and disable it?
 
BulletDust said:
So his one main regret is [ctrl], [alt] & [del]....

....But all those smaller players in the IT industry that he crushed into dust leaving them broke and destitute was just business....?

Fairly odd morals IMHO.
Click to expand...

This is probably for computers specifically, because I'm sure his main regret would be virtue signaling in public about how great he is going to make the world and then privately investing in things like privatized prisons. That's what I would have to believe.
 
ChoGGi said:
Edit: It seems this article was about some mac users complaining how it only takes one key to bring up the login prompt for mac, but three whole keys for windows?
"An earlier version of this post stated that ctrl+alt+delete turns on a PC."

Users can press a single key to log in -- not three -- on Apple's Mac computers"
Click to expand...

As of Windows 8, it is now 1 click to get to the user login selection. Either with the mouse or with a keyboard key. Windows 8 also allowed this with the swipe action on Tablets.

Windows 8 even introduced the weird ways like pins and pictures.
 
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