Why CTRL ALT DEL? [Byte Size] | Nostalgia Nerd

CTRL ALT DELETE. Now there's a key combination we're almost all familiar with. CTRL-ALT-DEL (or the three finger salute as it's known) used to instantly restart your computer, which was useful when an application crashed or you just wanted to clear your memory and start all over again. CTRL ALT DELETE would go on to be used for login and task management purposes under Windows protected mode, and it's been with us ever since.
I've created this video after noticing some news stories about Bill Gates considering the key combination a mistake (www.independent..., so this is a quick exploration of how CTRL ALT DELETE came to be, and how it evolved from an instant reset combination to Windows Task Management and a Windows NT SAK.
“I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous,” - David Bradley, 2001.
** For exclusive videos, mystery boxes and other rewards, please consider supporting me at; www.patreon.co... **
☟Sharing☟
If you wish to share this video in forums, social media, on your website, *please do so*! It helps tremendously with the channel!
☟Subcribe☟
www.youtube.co...
✊Support Me! ✊
*Please consider supporting the channel on Patreon*: www.patreon.co...
Visit my eBay Shop: ebay.to/1QQpYyy
Buy From Amazon (Amazon give a small commission to my affiliate account): AMAZON UK - amzn.to/2sTOsRW
★Join me on Social Media★
Twitter: / nostalnerd
Face: / nostalnerd
Instagram: / nostalgianerd
Web: www.nostalgiane...
★Equipment★
Lumix G6 with Vario 14-42mm Lens
Nikon D3200 with 40mm Macro
Corel Video Studio Ultimate X9
Corel Paint Shop Pro X6
Blue Snowball Microphone
♜Resources♜
If you believe I have forgotten to attribute anything in this video, please let me know, so I can add the source in. It takes time to make these videos and therefore it can be easy to forget things or make a mistake.

[@stevec00ps]

No you just hover your finger over the power button threateningly and give it a few moments to realise how wrong it was to lock up. Then all is good again.

[@allanrichardson1468]

Steve Cooper That works for Chuck Norris, I bet!

[@aikou2886]

Allan Richardson I think Chuck Norris only has to stare at it.

[@BTheBlindRef]

That, or you viciously smack the side of your monitor as a demonstration to your actual computer tower that you mean business and it had better shape up, or it was next!

[@Reach3DPrinters]

@@BTheBlindRef ...and the reason Skynet became sentient.

[@Zero1Zero1]

The bit about it being used for login and bringing up the task manager for any fake programs was really interesting

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Zero 1 But slightly wrong. On secure versions of Windows (including NT 3.10), Ctrl-Alt-Del *always* switches to the secure screen, where starting the task manager is just one of several options, rebooting being another. The set of options available depends if you are logged in and some security settings. Don't perpetuate the lie that it is ever meant to bring up the task manager, which was always CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (SHIFT was optional before Win95).

[@builder396]

I still remember the times when I had one of these "sophisticated" keyboards with extra function keys for, in this order, put PC into hibernation, start web browser, email program, play/pause, rewind, fast forward etc. These buttons were from left to right on top of escape and the F1-12 buttons. I was always extraordinarily happy when I blindly reached for escape or F1 in the middle of a game, usually online, and my computer would go into hibernation without so much as a prompt.

[@KuraIthys]

lol. I was quite surprised when I learnt some of those 'extra' keys are just repurposed function keys. Like if you have a keyboard with media controls, that translates to stuff like F14 and so on. Turns out quite a few older keyboards had 16 function keys, not 12. Even better, it seems at a hardware level PC's appear to recognise anything up to F20 at a minimum. So in fact all those things tend to just be extra function keys that aren't labelled as such. XD

[@MinorLG]

my current 3 year old keyboard has 16 F keys...

[@gymnasiast90]

Even the last generation of full-width wired Apple keyboards (which they stopped making only recently) went to F19. The one before went to F20. Being primarily a PC user, it felt a bit strange ;)

[@kaitlyn__L]

having recently switched to a more compact design (albeit not a mac-specific keyboard, not that my previous mac-specific keyboard was actually apple made) i must say i do miss the extra keys. i had bound F13-15 to be media keys.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

builder396 That is why I hate it when many laptops reverse the logic on F1 to F12, doing the custom commands unless you hold down the Fn key. Fortunately most provide a BIOS option to restore sanity.

[@PongoXBongo]

That same single button issue is why you should never put a power button on the keyboard either.

[@MyLastSong719]

Unless you program it correctly

[@LacAbEla]

+1000000 I had a keyboard with a power off button on one side and I ended disabling that feature in windows because I always ended up turning off my fucking computer by accident.

[@lybraman7231]

My keyboard had sleep, restart and power off in place where print screen usually is, I ripped them out.

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

PongoXBongo worat idea by lenovo in the early 2000s especially by putting it near the delete key

[@liquidminds]

Just looking on the keyboard of my 13" macbook pro... :-) the 'secret' is, that the key itself only jumps to the shutdown/reboot-menu and doesn't reboot instantly. You have to keep it pressed for several seconds to reboot the system.

[@GameHammerCG]

"Nobody wants to accidentally restart their computer" Yeah, BBC Micro. Nobody wants that. Frikkin' Break key.

[@Foebane72]

I remember losing a typed-in program that took over an hour to enter, by pressing that damn key. Luckily, Acorn put in a command to restore your program, called "OLD". I found that out too late in this instance, however.

[@wisteela]

Lockable on the Master series

[@reggiep75]

I remember those old days and managed to stop it by using technics lego to build a guard over it.

[@GameHammerCG]

Where there's a will, there's a way!

[@unnamed715]

Yeah, nobody wants that... *Goes to plug in a USB device, accidentally hits the restart button* SHIT!!!! >.

[@SpencerLemay]

CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE directly opens the task manager

[@1310up]

Wow! I didn't know that, thanks!

[@MYCRAFTisbest]

I always forget what the direct to task manager shortcut is. I should probably try and memorize it but I've been using CTRL+ALT+DEL since I first started using computers and it works well enough.

[@NolePTR]

CTRL + ALT + ESCAPE closes a program

[@gravijta936]

ALT + F4 closes the focused program. If there aren't any programs open, it shuts down the computer.

[@risvegliato]

thats useful to know - thanks! why are we not told these things?

[@fen4554]

Dr. Sbaitso! I rememeber if you kept saying "I love you.", after turning you down multiple times, he would eventually say: *"Ooohh~ , my circuits are melting."*

[@Pieh0]

1:49 You'd think that wouldn't you, but then you see stupid keyboards with sleep and shutdown buttons on them right next to important buttons, like the arrow keys.

[@RussellTeapot]

wow. that's some serious quality design there

[@QuantumScratcher]

Mine isn't that bad - I have a compacted full keyboard (whatever that is) and the power button is above the PgUp key but it's further away. NOTE: on my keyboard, when using the power button when the system is on it puts it into sleep mode.

[@MeriaDuck]

One of my cats once stood on ctrl and alt with one paw, hovering a front paw over delete... "accidental"?

[@EnglishLaw]

lol

[@KuraIthys]

lol. Never underestimate a cat's sense of purpose... I know my cat was leaping at doorknobs. Even though it's physically impossible for it to twist the knob and actually open a door that way, it had still clearly figured out that the knob had something to do with getting the door to open... Now the question is, was your cat doing that accidentally, or did it have a purpose. And if so, why was it trying to restart your computer? XD

[@911Salvage]

Why do you let animals roam around in your house? That's disgusting.

[@picketf]

+Mouldy CPU What if his house is a farm? Also he never said that it happened inside his house. He may have taken a Laptop out in the park, sat down on his perfectly neat picnic towel when his well mannered cat just felt like tapping into her keyboard skills?? Or while he was working the reception desk of the pet hotel, his own pet, which he is allowed to bring to work, wanted to express her dissatisfaction with another, not so well mannered guest?

[@Lee-mv3im]

Mouldy CPU But....But...pets!.

[@vwestlife]

The IBM AT did introduce a dedicated system request key -- SysReq -- but nobody ever used it for much, not even Microsoft.

[@Nostalgianerd]

VWestlife Indeedy Mr. Westlife

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

except unix and linux!

[@monkehbitch]

THE most useless key.

[@700gsteak]

What do you mean by nobody used it much. It is the print screen button in windows. My Logitech G910 keyboard even has SYSRQ printed on the key.

[@vurpo7080]

Linux uses the SysRq key to send special commands to the kernel, which is useful to safely reboot a Linux computer in an emergency (like if some program is completely jammed)

[@_Piers_]

Bill and his one key nonsense... I had a Microsoft keyboard, with added "feature" keys. While pressing the "Sleep" key was slightly annoying, the true evil was the "Shutdown" key. The slightest tap of a stray finger or cat paw, bad times. You could disable them, but i don't imagine most people would have figured out how.

[@KuraIthys]

The windows key by itself was already the bane of my existence. So many accidental 'windows key' presses while gaming. and it took a Looong time before games started disabling it, or keyboards started offering a way to disable it as an option (as my current keyboard does) It got so bad at some point I resorted to physically prying the windows and 'menu' key off my keyboard. (what even is the point of that 'menu' key anyway? All it does is replicate what happens if you use the right mouse button. - maybe that explains why my current keyboard has the windows key but not that one.)

[@Locutus]

Point of the menu key was to allow mouseless operation. Back in the days of 95, the mouse was PS/2 and wasn't reliable.

[@deneb_tm]

I like the menu key. I pried the sleep button off of one of my keyboards though. It was the worst offender on there, thankfully.

[@AmstradExin]

I removed these keys physically....

[@_Piers_]

For gaming purposes, I always used AutoHotkey, to remap any undesirable keys to require additional modifier keys. My main problem (while playing WoW) was accidentally pressing Alt-Tab - Pressing Tab to get a new target without taking my finger of Alt, which I used as​ the modifier for my second row of spells. Sorry...far to much random detail, anyway AutoHotkey has so many uses :)

[@contournut5726]

The thing about the windows and menu keys is that they're optional. Yea, *most* keyboards added them, but some didn't. Now, if you couldn't login to your machine without the new keys, that would be a problem. So telling every user they've got to trash their favorite old keyboard because Microsoft thought they'd get made fun of for using an interrupt that was already there would have been ugly. And some manufacturers might have just left it off anyway since you don't need it for home desktop logins. So I think saying that Microsoft had the power to add keys is disingenuous. Microsoft managed to add some optional keys to most keyboards, eventually. That's not quite the same as getting universal acceptance of a key that would have been mandatory.

[@rifter0x0000]

One aspect that might be missed here is the fact Microsoft themselves became producers of computer peripherals like mice and keyboards. I think the first keyboards which had the "windows keys" on were from Microsoft themselves. They did have some pull with computer manufacturers, who also had their own custom keyboards (eventually adding Windows keys). That said, I think you are right about the mandatory thing. Microsoft often tried to get features added which would be mandatory additions, and eventually many of these technologies became standard, but you're right that their attempts to dictate generally generated pushback from users and therefore manufacturers as well, despite the aforementioned pull.

[@d.romero3014]

If your keyboard hasn't a Windows Flag key, you can hit Ctrl+Esc for the same purpose.

[@bluesrocker91]

I'm still looking for the Any key...

[@mariannmariann2052]

The "Any" key is just basically any key.

[@ThePsiclone]

its on the left, right next to F13

[@TurboWafflz]

I thought I had figured it out by buying a Gateway Anykey keyboard, but even that doesn't have the Any key.

[@alexdaian]

@@mariannmariann2052 r/woooosh

[@TheDylandProductions]

I've never seen such a dad joke get r/woooosh 'd so hard before.

[@squidcaps4308]

In the glorious 80s my IT teacher didn't know it. She tried to sneak in and see what combo it was, didn't ask. When she finally caught me doing it, she proudly taught to the class like she knew that all along... She also required principal to be present when i had turned off the monitor so show how i had now broken the whole thing. She didn't allow me to turn the monitor on before it was witnessed. I turned the monitor on and she had the reddest faces ive seen when everything was just fine. I happened to have Amiga at home and was in the IT club the year before. I knew more than she did at the time... IT in the 80s and early 90s was often comical and students usually knew more than teachers.. My IT vocation school turned to be "how to fix radios" and the "IT" we had was 2 hours of word and excel per week. I spent my time with ancient Kaypros (abut same age as my current computer is from current date.. lol...) and XY plotter in the backroom that was total waste of time.

[@CyberDreZ]

SquidCaps Graduating this year, and I’ve experienced some teachers knowing less than students even now when it comes to anything technology related, but luckily they never acted like they did know more than the students. Instead they learned from us and have became better teachers because of it!

[@immortalsofar5314]

I did have a PC keyboard with a power-off key. Of course, they had to shuffle things around to make room for it so they replaced the elongated backspace key with an ordinary sized one and put the power off button next to it. This design flaw, I then fixed with a screwdriver.

[@batlin]

4:50 wait, CTRL+ALT+RESET?

[@AlandrisFerguson]

Not sure of the reason for it in the Microsoft prompt, but some old IBM keyboards actually have a reset key.

[@woksrandomchannel]

Dr. Sbaitso! Man, that brings back memories.

[@smheath]

David Bradley was one of my college professors!

[@ninjarobotdude]

Michael Heath Same here. NC State?

[@BassappsDeutschland]

When you think you’ve seen it all you see a google account with no dp and 0 subs being verified.. bro what’s happening there haha

[@sbeveuwu]

How did you get verified with 0 subs xd

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

+BassApps: See Andrew Kan's video "How I got Verified✔ on KZbin! - [How to Get Verified ✅] ".

[@BassappsDeutschland]

Yo nice spam which completely ignores my question.

[@leberkassemmel]

No, not CTRL ALT DEL. Its ALT + SYSRQ + REISUB!

[@waynegalen1538]

Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken

[@liquidminds]

technically, ALT + PrintScreen = SYSRQ, so it's SYSRQ + REISUB, isn't it?

[@leberkassemmel]

"The key combination consists of Alt+Sys Req and another key, which controls the command issued." -Wikipedia, 2017

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Leberkas Semmel Doesn't work until Linux kernel loaded. I remember patching in an extra letter to simulate C-A-D on serial terminals.

[@tcreeperrblx8682]

you could just say sysrq + B because who needs killing tasks, syncing and unmounting filesystems

[@Kabodanki]

can be a pain in the ass for the newbies playing with virtual machines

[@MegaManNeo]

Those guys still have other shortcuts that simulate this key combination for the VM.

[@azertycraftgaming]

Ctrl-alt-insert

[@GewelReal]

"RIGHT CONTROL"

[@chickerinoradio6617]

@@sebastian19745 imagine if it still restarted your main PC to this day..... oof

[@magisterxmilitum]

3:30 It's worth noting that modern x64 EFI/UEFI systems boot directly into long mode. That whole transition from real mode to protected mode and long mode only applies to systems with legacy BIOS.

[@NaokisRC]

Its like my current PC time travels from the 80s to the 10s every boot then lol

[@leberkassemmel]

If you switch your UEFI to "Legacy Mode", the Bootloader gets loaded in real mode, and then can proceed like in gone-by days.

[@netcore2k]

I believe you'll find the processor still starts up in Real mode. It's just the BIOS will switch the processor into Long Mode before calling the UEFI boot code.

[@leberkassemmel]

Any CPU after the 8086, beginning with the 80286 have no Real mode, it is called Unreal Mode. And Unreal and Protected Mode are completely bypassed with the UEFI. The UEFI searches for an ELF, and sends that to the CPU. The only Modes for UEFI are Long (x64) and Flat (x86).

[@pvc988]

1. Unreal mode is something a little bit different. It is the state when you have protected mode segment registers still loaded but protected mode disabled (PE bit in CR0 cleared) so you can access up to 4GiB address space in real mode. 2. x86(-64) CPUs still boot in real mode at address 0xFFFFFFF0 and no software can circumvent it. UEFI just switches to protected/long mode earlier. Even in multiprocessor/multicore environment additional CPUs/cores start in real mode when enabled by so called BSP (bootstrap processor) and it is up to the OS to switch them to Protected/Long mode. 3. UEFI does not support ELF format. It uses (windows like) PE executable format.

[@SketchAndEtch]

"Here at Apple we don't use such convoluted combinations! You simply tap the screen, throw it into trash and buy a new one!"

[@avi8aviate]

They still use some combinations, even three-key ones. But I get the joke; Apple's iMacs of your time were extremely fragile when it came to the screens.

[@markofexcellence5209]

I prefer holding the power button, ripping the computer out of the wall outlet and hurling the computer out of my 24 story apartment complex.

[@AntiChangeling]

I prefer to carry it gently down the stairs and out of my 24 story building and then toss it off the 25 story building across the road.

[@himbeerme]

AntiChangeling I prefer to carry it gently down the stairs od my 24 story building, getting to the 25 floor building on the other side and then take it onto a helicopter that landed on the rooftop to toss it from their!

[@CorpusOrganic]

just seems like a slower way to reboot the pc that way. i tried it though. having to lug it all that back up the stairs and plug it in was to much for me. didn't help that on the third go the pc wouldn't boot. likely it was just getting old.

[@NimhLabs]

I mostly reserve that option for Fax Machines and printers.

[@natgrant1364]

Well, that'd definitely shut it down. Restarting may be problematic.

[@Foebane72]

Don't forget the Amiga's elegant and stylish equivalent: Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga! Lovely!

[@mariannmariann2052]

Wait there is two Amiga keys on a Amiga keyboard? Let me search it. Yes there is two.

[@smallmoneysalvia]

"Here's literally the entire world for you. You can own it now. All you have to do is change ctrl-alt-del to something different" "Nah"

[@joychapman9228]

ctrl-alt-end

[@RMCRetro]

The 2nd Nerd Video I've enjoyed today. It was a good day.

[@BrekMartin]

Keyboard keys such as Ctrl and Alt, that are intended to be pressed in combination with other keys, have their own columns on the keyboard matrix. It's only the third key that's arbitrary.

[@ncsupi]

I had Dr. Bradley for Intro to Computer Architecture, and he was happy to show that video at the end to the class :D

[@KOTYAR0]

Who would ever possibly dislike this three button combination? It's like disliking airbags or gllove box in a car, it's such a useful feature

[@theophilusthistler5885]

LOL. Dr. SBAITSO often crashed beyond a soft reset. At least on a 486 SX 33 using a Turtle Beach sound card.

[@fencer1979]

😂He is my neighbor, David Bradley AKa the guy who created control alt delete. He is a funny guy as he made jokes while he talked to me and my siblings as we waited for the bus in the mornings and he would take morning walks

[@byronblue7758]

Oh Dr. Sbaitso, much of my childhood using this. Also a lot of pranks pulled on boot with him.

[@R107HF]

Thanks David Bradley!

[@davidhenderson3400]

I hope they never take this away. Some one forgot to install this on the HAL 9000 and look at the problems that caused.

[@buddyclem7328]

🔴 I'm sorry. I can't do that, Dave.

[@MOS-MHz]

I couldn't live without it..

[@SteveBenway]

CTRL AMIGA AMIGA ;)

[@reggiep75]

LEGIT!!

[@LupoAndy]

Thanks to this combo I can reset my A500 with just the right hand.

[@BigWhoopZH]

Steve Benway Awww. I’m remembering that, too. Childhood and youth with my Amiga and the start of my career as a programmer. Good times.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Steve Benway button on back of Acorn A5000

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

Hey I know you! You don't do reviews or play throughs. You just show me the game so I know what it looks like

[@robinkhlop1977]

Being a kid I remember thinking that 'delete' meant the backspace key.

[@reggiep75]

I don't know why someone didn't opt to hardwire a reset button onto a keyboard with an aeroplane style momentary toggle switch with edgy cover and yellow and black tape! Logic!

[@dickcheney6]

Apple's Mac OS used Command Alt Escape, however they mitigated the "mash left side of keyboard" issue by only responding to that combination when you're *not* pressing any other keys. I still call that the 3 finger salute since, well, it's still 3 fingers :)

[@jeffwalker7185]

I remember when you tried to access the floppy drive without a floppy disk inserted and you would get the 'abort, retry or fail' options (a,r,f), none of which had any effect and it had to be the three finger salute.

[@Techdisk42]

I just remembered the original Model F PC keyboards didn't have a separate delete key. They all had that weird XT layout. CTRL-ALT-DEL wasn't actually DEL. It was the numpad "." or "del". I just tried it. It works. You can use the numpad "del" button for ctrl-alt-del. And it doesn't matter if numlock is on or off.

[@scaredfolks5923]

I love how on Linux it's `Alt+SysReq+R+E+I+S+U+B` to reboot.

[@CorpusOrganic]

i like that key combo. it helps a lot when playing games. especially since they have been refusing to lose focus for the past few years.

[@okaro6595]

2:23 Though the keyboard at the time did not have separate delete key. It had only the combination of the numeric pad and cursor etc. keys.

[@pwnmeisterage]

Apple II computers had a reset key in a faraway upper corner. "Reset" really meant "instant immediate interrupt and reboot" ... and "accidental" resets were common/annoying enough that excessively stiff/hard springs and switches eventually appeared on this one key ensure every Reset was deliberate. Later Apple II+ machines required Ctrl-Reset pressed together, impossible to do one-handed since they were located on opposite keyboard edges. A standard feature built into every subsequent Apple machine - and happily copied into every Apple clone - for at least a decade. These machines all predated Ctrl-Alt-Del by years and they sure as hell weren't obscure. Especially since IBM meant to directly compete with them. So I suspect this IBM engineering tale has been somewhat elaborated in history. The inventors of Ctrl-Alt-Del could not have been unaware of Ctrl-Reset, regardless of what IBM told the public.

[@faxis2k]

You never fail to deliver. Well done.

[@raven4k998]

they are drinking from giant cups to make themselves look stronger and more bad ass then they really are🤣🤣🤣

[@CoolDudeClem]

I have a keyboard that actually has sleep and restart buttons on it (or at least did have them), I had to take them off in the end as I was always accidentally turning my computer off or restarting it.

[@thermallance7947]

Guess before watching. It is a familiar combo that was used in similar situations in the older era. But thing is, back then it LITERALLY rebooted the computer. So it was necessary to have a key combo that couldnt possibly done by accident. The delete key was used for being far away (at the other side of the keyboard) from the other two. Now let's see if I learned my computing history right.

[@TheZombieCurryKid]

You can do it with one hand by taking your left hand and bringing it over to the right side of the keyboard. Use the pinky for right alt, thumb for right ctrl, and index finger for del. It's much faster then taking your right hand off the mouse.

[@UpTheAnte1987]

We told a boy at school that if he pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del when playing Doom it would give him invincibility. He came in the next day saying we'd broken his computer and it didn't work properly anymore! :)

[@avi8aviate]

I don't think you should've put that smiley emoticon...

[@TheFox517]

@@avi8aviate Why not? It's perfect.

[@avi8aviate]

@@TheFox517 If you're a sociopath, maybe. Do you realize how much a computer costs, especially at times when Doom was popular?

[@TheFox517]

@@avi8aviate Yeah, a keyboard shortcut can't break a whole PC. It would propably break anyway if it gave up after a simple reboot.

[@avi8aviate]

@@TheFox517 An improper reboot can corrupt a critical file, leaving an operating system unusable or even unbootable.

[@MegaManNeo]

Yes. Ctrl+Alt+Delete, a key combo that is a stable ever since and therefore is also known to many if not all lesser experienced users also. I can't tell how many times this key combo saved me when accidentally crashing the system (even Linux where it basically resets the X server) but one thing's assured, it gets the job done.

[@PokeMaster22222]

MacOS has Command+Option+esc, which brings up a Force Quit box. Not quite as 'secure' as the double-hand CTRL+ALT+DEL, and not quite a Task Manager, but it works.

[@nevillegoddard7231]

Easy to remember when you need it and never in the way. CTRL ALT DEL isn't something someone would want to use as a keyboard shortcut which means CTRL ALT DEL never gets in the way of something someone would want to use for daily operation or work.

[@JustinSchroeder29]

That look on Bill's face speaks for the one finger salute...

[@JacGoudsmit]

3:02 "Wasn't documented until Windows 3": False. The IBM PC Guide To Operations which came with every PC mentions Ctrl-Alt-Del on page 3-7.

[@d2factotum]

He said it wasn't "hugely" documented, meaning that not that many people knew about this prior to Windows 3, not that it wasn't documented at all.

[@AntiChangeling]

Are you Dwight in real life?

[@JacGoudsmit]

Hmmm... Define "hugely". I would argue that, on average, computer users in the early 1980s knew a lot more about computers than people do now. And I can't imagine anyone who knew their way around DOS wouldn't know that Ctrl-Alt-Delete restarts the machine. Or maybe I was just in a small bubble?

[@getxyzzy]

can't really agree with it not being known about, either. Everybody learned about the vulcan nerve-pinch as one of the first things to do. When NT came along, M$ wanted to make it so clear that it was "new" that they deliberately used the ctrl-alt-del combo to log on rather than reboot the computer.

[@rasz]

@Jac Goudsmit1 >Hmmm... Define "hugely". bigly

[@shyguyshawn82oldman]

Very interesting vid and very well put together

[@treknology1068]

Even if you don't have the appropriate keyboard for demo purposes, I think you should have included at least an image of one that originally had single CTRL and ALT keys on the left, and the only DEL key was on the combined number/cursor pad. Further, this combination was out of the box (so to speak) with the earliest machines. Other trivia: The PC and XT were built with entirely off-the-shelf components that a tech could restock for about $200, except for the custom EPROM chips. The AT-286 machine was fully capable of hardware multi-tasking, but MS never bothered to enhance DOS to allow multiple applications. I reasonably believe that the purpose of the SysRq key was to call up an equivalent of the task manager to switch between applications. If Windows had not STOLEN the ALT key for menus, and followed the behavior of the flagship DOS version of Word which hung the menu from the ESC key, there would never have been any need to introduce those MS-specific keys which are so conveniently positioned that merely bumping then kicks you out of your current application and requires the inconvenience of closing new unwanted boxes to get back to the work that you were performing.

[@xadhtube]

You can disable Ctrl-Alt-Del in real mode in exactly the same way as in protected mode: by removing the BIOS's IRQ 1 (defaultly mapped to INT 9). This is related to protected mode only by the fact that in real mode this just works and requires effort to disable, while in protected mode it requires significant effort from whatever supervisor is running to preserve it's functionality. Default mapping of IRQs 0-7 conflicts with protected mode exception handlers and thus have to remapped somewhere else and then there is the question of actually calling into the BIOS code, which involves either vm86 mode or temporarily tearing down protected mode (or running BIOS code in software x86 emulator, which probably would not work in this case, but works for things like extension ROMs, particularly for VGA/VESA BIOS).

[@ieast007]

I think one tidbit you left out is that the Unix computers of the days had a specialized key like a STOP key that could trigger a hardware interrupt and get into a boot prom. This feature was somewhat emulated on x86 somewhat poorly.

[@MrRhar75]

listened to your interview today on the retro hour, catching up with their podcasts..

[@Stonehawk]

I wish there were still such a low level interrupt available. I wish all operating systems ran under the watch of a hypervisor that would instantly halt on the hardware level, save a memory image snapshot to disk, and permit you to perform instant maintenance operations like purge individual tasks with no waiting. If the system hangs, you can opt to reload the memory image from before and try different tools...

[@NoobixCube]

I became quite adept at doing it one handed. Fingers shouldn't bend that way, but I managed it.

[@HaloInverse]

I was about to say you must have massive hands, until I remembered that there's a Ctrl and an Alt on the right-hand side of the keyboard, too. So much for "requiring two hands to prevent accidental activation".

[@NoobixCube]

On some keyboards that does still require a weird contortion, to get the alt with your thumb, the delete with your middle finger, and a weird bend backwards with the index finger to get control, while still being able to reach the delete.

[@KuraIthys]

It's still pretty difficult to do accidentally. Ctrl + Alt + Esc could happen just from mashing part of your hand down on the left side of the keyboard. Ctrl + Alt + Delete on the right side are far enough apart that you really have to spread your hand out wide and hit things at just the right angle to hit all 3 at once. It's not impossible, but it is less likely.

[@GeckonCZ]

The original IBM PC keyboard had only 83-keys and lacked right Control/Alt keys (along with many other keys). So the key combination really did require two hands to activate when it was first implemented. Same is true for the later 84-key keyboard.

[@HaloInverse]

+GeckonCZ Well. It looks like the right Ctrl/Alt keys weren't added until about 1986...about two years before I would have seen an IBM PC in person for the first time. ...I really should have looked that up before snarking - thanks for pointing that out.

[@drubradley8821]

Still enjoy your channel through

[@jasinere35]

one thing was left out here was the 3 finger salute was also used to override programmes that locked out the user, this happens to me quite a lot due to bogus internet sites claiming there are viruses & attempting to download if I clicked X

[@Jikyuu]

Did anyone else chuckle at the phrase "three fingered salute"?

[@JackWebb128]

You have to read between the lines

[@manuell3505]

The Star Trek salute is probably derived from this. 2x2 fingers and a thumb...

[@bryanblatz2001]

@@manuell3505 We used to call it the Vulcan nerve pinch and the power button was the one finger salute lol.

[@Danrandon900]

I refer to it as the 3 fingered waltz

[@Caffin8tor]

I liked the video, but one thing I wanted to say is that making it a single key now would not lead back to the original problem of rebooting accidentally because that's not what Ctrl-Alt-Del does anymore (outside of the Bios screens and some Linux configurations).

[@Nostalgianerd]

Caffinator context is everything.

[@Menstral]

What about the rest of the story? David Bradley and all the models, and the Bugatti and Maserati, and his coke fueled excursions in the Phillipines?

[@buddyclem7328]

My computing life started with SYSTEM RESET, then RUN/STOP RESTORE, and now CTRL ALT DEL, or holding POWER on my phone.

[@RussellTeapot]

"..why we use the three-fingers salut." when everything else doesn't work, I often use the one-finger salut.

[@lurkerrekrul]

I have a topic I'd love to see you cover, mainly because I don't understand why it is the way it is, but it might be too technical or obscure for your channel; DelayedExpansion of variables in scripts. When I started writing more complex scripts for use in Windows, I found it quite similar to BASIC in most respects, but there is one aspect of it that still mystifies me to this day; DelayedExpansion. When you use a loop in a script, normal variable logic goes out the window. You can explicitly set a variable, but it will NOT contain the value you just set it to. You have to jump through hoops just to get variables to behave the way logic tells you that they should. And to this day, I have never figured out how to read the ErrorLevel variable inside a loop. No matter what I do, it never works. Frankly, I think the programmers were stoned when they wrote the variable handling.

[@ravex24]

Dr. Sbaitso! I couldn't begin to tell you how cool I thought that was when I was younger. Wasted a lot of time talking to some computer.

[@AntiChangeling]

Does Alt stand for Alternate, Alter or Altoid?

[@moth.monster]

AntiChangeling it stands for altair obvs

[@satibel]

Fool, it's Altazimuths.

[@NimhLabs]

It stands for "Meta"

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

"Alternate". I have never seen it spelled out on a IBM-compatible keyboard, but NeXT had a few keyboards that had the full word on the key.

[@sariarosegold]

Altair 6. its a no win scenario

[@berczigabor]

3:45 Wrong. The way Ctrl+Alt+Del is handled has nothing to do with the processor being in protected more or not. You can very well change they way the computer reacts to this key combination also in real mode, by simply capturing the keyboard interrupt (by setting the appropriate entry in the Interrupt Vector Table), and preventing the original BIOS keyboard interrupt handler from working. So now when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, your keyboard interrupt handler can just ignore it or do anything else you tell it to do.

[@AmstradExin]

True. It's simply 2 8042 talking to each other. One scans the keyboard and one sets the interrupt. What the CPU does when a certain Interrupt, is up to the programmer. Normally, an NMI resets the program counter to 0, however, with added HW this can be anywhere. Also, PC Hardware internally also resets other stuff with it. Timers from other chips, I/O States. And all of this is independent from the CPU.

[@3800S1]

ctrl+alt+esc is handy for force minimizing programs when alt tab doesn't work. Good for games where it crashes or the mouse gets stuck on the desktop without the game minimizing with alt tab

[@yushatak]

I didn't know why NT did the "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to log in" thing - cool to learn something like that when I thought I knew all the IBM PC history factoids at this point. xD

[@Alkaris]

Ctrl+Alt+Delete works differently on Linux than it does on Windows. When you press those 3 keys under Linux 2 things can happen. 1. If you are logged in and you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete you will logout of your current session. 2. If you are outside of a user session, say the OS boot screen and you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete again you will initiate system restart call to the kernel.

[@MatthewBester]

We learnt how to use Acorn computers in school. I remember being blown away by the programmable turtle game thing.

[@Laenthal]

CTRL-ALT-RESET works everytime on any system, even if there is no CTRL and/or ALT keys available at all :3

[@borchrich]

1. Ctrl +Alt + Del was well-known in DOS days - not since "Windows 3".2. Are you sure you have the correct dates for the 80286, 80386, etc. CPU releases?

[@CB3ROB-CyberBunker]

just that ibm pc's and xt's didn't ship with the model-m keyboard but with the short version of the model-f. maing control-alt-del all keys on the bottom side of the keyboard but still miles apart. (only one ctrl, one alt, with the space bar in the middle) and one del). still doable with 3 fingers, but two for alt and del and one for control.

[@Matty112uk]

And I bet most of us only use CTRL, ALT + DELETE on a work PC. I know I do. Working for a bank, I must press it several times a day, mostly to unlock it. I hardly ever use it at home. Cool vid buddy :)

[@kaitlyn__L]

ctrl alt del is fine enough, though i do honestly prefer ctrl shift esc, for getting task manager up anyway. they were completely interchangeable of course in xp and prior, but once vista hit, i just hated getting that "lock this computer, restart, open task manager" etc interstitial screen, but ctrl shift esc would still go right to task manager. and lo, that's what i use. of course, on osx, the command to bring up the force close dialogue (which is separated from the "activity monitor", though that can also force close programs) is cmd alt esc (or cmd opt esc, depending on the mac keyboard), and given that cmd replaces ctrl for most functions in osx (tho ctrl still exists), that's basically what david had considered. ofc a lot of the smaller mac keyboards don't have a proper del key anyway, though the fullsize ones did.

[@Enchurito]

1:50 except tomb raider 2 had some actions assigned to ctrl alt and delete that sometimes were done at the same time. I remember resetting my computer accidentally during that game.

[@ErickC]

Interesting that Ctrl+Break is another old DOS command. To this day, it's still the key command to immediately close Microsoft Flight Simulator (and its derivatives) without a confirmation message.

[@wisteela]

Another excellent video. Very spaced apart on original PC keyboard

[@markusTegelane]

I use CTRL + SHIFT + ESC Edit:Why does this comment have over 100 likes?

[@robertlinke2666]

that works 2, but not when a program has locked itself in the foreground

[@Architector_4]

+robert linke I suggest you to press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC right now and enable Task Manager to appear ontop of all windows. This way, programs can't lock themself over the task manager, at least partially.

[@sillyszili2593]

exactly

[@GameHammerCG]

Ctrl+Shift+Esc. CPC for the win.

[@WRussellPortfolio]

@robert, In the Task Manager options there's a setting to always show Task Manager on top.

[@CommodoreFan64]

on a Chromebook Ctrl, Alt, Delete does not work, so you just have to hold down the power button till the system turns off, and if that does not work pull the power cord, and remove the battery if you can(can do on my Lenovo Thinkpad X131e Chromebook). it's the only OS I know of that runs on X86 based hardware where the 3 finger salute won't work.

[@Dukefazon]

A 2hand 3button reser wasn't unfamiliar for me when I started to use a PC. The previous machine I used I had to hit Amiga-Amiga-CTRL to restart the machine. Yay!

[@xymaryai8283]

Moving to Linux, that was probably the single most jarring missing feature. many, many times i've had unresponsive, misbehaving software that i just needed to ctrl+alt+delete my way out of, but it was futile. Still to this day I have to manually bind ctrl+alt+del in software, only to get a mouse input based software kill, which is useless if the software is causing havoc with the desktop environment, which is often the case.

[@MartinWillett]

It's terrific. Not even my cat can trigger it accidentally.

[@Hessijames79]

It is worth mentioning that CTRL-ALTGR-DEL also works in Windows and can be pressed by one hand.

[@MarcinKralka]

Oh, I just checked something, you can use "Del" key on your numpad, on the right side of the keyboard.

[@TortureBot]

It kind of seems like a moot point to use ctrl-alt-delete thinking you have to use two hands to do it, because you can press ctrl-alt-delete using the three keys on the right side of the keyboard. That's how I have done it for years and can do it with one hand pretty easily.

[@andrewfrost8866]

Absolutely brilliant.

[@MeVsThevoices]

Where've you been, buddy? Missed your stuff

[@casparharte]

Would be interesting to know how/why so many other vendors adopted this convention baking it into their own BIOS implementation.

[@Caseytify]

"100% IBM compatible." 'Nuff said. Same reason everyone imitated the terrible PC Model F layout.

[@glurp1er]

The NT log-on is pretty clever

[@DeadReckon]

Apart from rebooting when I didn't mash the delete key in time to get into the BIOS, I don't really use CTRL ALT DEL anymore, usually use CTRL SHIFT ESC 'cause I have no need for the extra GUI added since Windows Vista (Was it added in vista or 7? I can't remember.). I still use a lot of other keyboard shortcuts though, ALT TAB being among the most common.

[@NimhLabs]

A nice history video. Thankies!

[@nikize]

ctrl and alt are located on the right side of space as well, so still possible to triger with on hand smash (or cat)

[@Nostalgianerd]

nikize if you're a fat handed buffoon. Sure.