Ctrl+Alt+Del was a mistake

[Mich the Tester]

Bill Gates: Ctrl+Alt+Del was a mistake - Telegraph


But Bill, what would we do without it?

[MaryPoppins]

I read this last night and meant to post it.

[Mich the Tester]

I read this last night and meant to post it.

Did your PC crash?

[vetran]

the argument I first heard for this was that it meant a log on and reboot should be concious decision not a random keypress therefore all 3 fingers were needed.

Not sure life would have been the same if we hadn't had the 'three fingered salute'.

[MaryPoppins]

Did your PC crash?

I got distracted.

[NickFitz]

the argument I first heard for this was that it meant a log on and reboot should be concious decision not a random keypress therefore all 3 fingers were needed.

That was the rationale behind using it to reboot the original IBM PC. The "mistake" referred to was using the same thing for logging in to Windows. I always thought overloading it for what can be seen as orthogonal actions was odd.

[vetran]

I got distracted.

Tupperware moment?

[scooterscot]

If that was a mistake

What is he calling it when we press the Start button to switch the machine off?

[TykeMerc]

I got distracted.

Look, shiny!!!!

On topic though, Gates was wrong, a single button would have been a nightmare for support people. While the 3 finger salute could be considered clunky it had a safety factor that before the days of autorecovery of documents and software that didn't need re-installing if the machine crashed was useful.
It wasn't a bad idea to use it to access the task manager tools.

[Alias]

Did your PC crash?

Think she was calming her nerves really after this....Linky