Control-Alt-Delete (often abbreviated to Ctrl+Alt+Del and sometimes called the "three-finger salute" or "Security Keys")[1][2] is a computer keyboard command on IBM PC compatible computers, invoked by pressing the Delete key while holding the Control and Alt keys: Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The function of the key combination differs depending on the context but it generally interrupts or facilitates interrupting a function. For instance, in pre-boot environment (before an operating system starts)[3][4][5] or in MS-DOS, Windows 3.0 and earlier versions of Windows or OS/2, the key combination reboots the computer. Starting with Windows 95, the key combination invokes a task manager or security related component that facilitates ending a Windows session or killing a frozen application.
History
The soft reboot function via keyboard was originally designed by David Bradley.[6][7] Bradley, as the chief engineer of the IBM PC project and developer of the machine's ROM-BIOS, had originally used
Ctrl+Alt+Esc,[8] but found it was too easy to bump the left side of the keyboard and reboot the computer accidentally. According to his own account, Mel Hallerman, who was the chief programmer of the project, therefore suggested switching the key combination to Ctrl+Alt+Del as a safety measure, a combination impossible to press with just one hand on the original IBM PC keyboard.[9][10][11]
The feature was originally conceived only as a development feature for internal use and not intended to be used by end users, as it triggered the reboot without warning or further confirmation—it was meant to be used by people writing programs or documentation so that they could reboot their computers without powering them down. Bill Gates (former MicrosoftCEO) remembered it as "just something we were using in development and it wouldn't be available elsewhere".[12] The feature, however, was detailed in IBM's technical reference documentation[3] to the original PC and thereby revealed to the general public.[9]
Bradley viewed this work as just one small task out of many: "It was five minutes, 10 minutes of activity, and then I moved on to the next of the 100 things that needed to get done."[7] In a March 2018 email, one of Bradley's co-workers confirmed the command was invented in 1981 in Boca Raton, Florida.[13]
Bradley is also known for his good-natured jab at Gates at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC on August 8, 2001 at The Tech Museum:
"I have to share the credit. I may have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous."; he quickly added it was a reference to Windows NT logon procedures ("Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on").[14][10]
During a question and answer presentation on 21 September 2013, Gates said "it was a mistake", referring to the decision to use Ctrl+Alt+Del as the keyboard combination to log into Windows. Gates stated he would have preferred a single button to trigger the same actions, but could not get IBM to add the extra button into the keyboard layout.[8]
BIOS
By default, when the operating system is running in real mode (or in a pre-boot environment, when no operating system is started yet), this keystroke combination is intercepted by the BIOS.[3][4][5][15][16] The BIOS reacts by performing a soft reboot (also known as a warm reboot).[3][4][5][16]
Examples of such operating systems include DOS, Windows 3.0 in Standard Mode as well as earlier versions of Windows.[8]
Windows
DOS-based Windows
In Windows 9x and Windows 3.0 running in 386 Enhanced mode,[8] the keystroke combination is recognized by the Windows keyboard device driver. According to the value of the LocalReboot option in the [386Enh] section of system.ini, Windows performs one of several actions in response. If LocalReboot=On (default):
Windows 3.1x displays a blue screen that allows the user to press Enter to end a task that has stopped responding to the system (if such a task exists) or press Control+Alt+Delete again to perform a soft reboot.[17] The text of this rudimentary task manager was written by Steve Ballmer.[18]
Windows 9x temporarily halts the entire system and displays the Close Program dialog box, a window which lists currently running processes and allows the user to end them (by force, if necessary). The user can press Control+Alt+Delete again to perform a soft reboot.[19][20]
If LocalReboot=Off, Windows performs a soft reboot.[17][20]
Windows NT family
The Windows NT family of operating system, whose members do not have "NT" in their names since Windows 2000, reserve Ctrl+Alt+Delete for the operating system itself. Winlogon, a core component of the operating system,[21] responds to the key combination in the following scenarios:
The key combination always invokes Windows Security in all versions and editions of Windows NT family except Windows XP. (See below.) Prior to Windows Vista, Windows Security was a dialog box, did not allow user switching and showed the logon date and time, name of user account into which the user has logged on and the computer name. Starting with Windows Vista, Windows Security became full-screen.
Secure attention
Login spoofing is a social engineering trick in which a malicious computer program with the appearance of a Windows login dialog box prompts for user's account name and password to steal them. To thwart this attack, Windows NT implements an optional security measure in which Ctrl+Alt+Delete acts as a secure attention key combination. Once the protection is activated, Windows requires the user to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete each time before logging on or unlocking the computer. Since the key combination is intercepted by Windows itself and malicious software cannot mimic this behavior,[b] the trick is thwarted.[22] Unless the Windows computer is part of a Windows domain network, the secure attention protection is disabled by default and must be enabled by the user.[23][24]
Windows XP behavior
Windows XP introduces Welcome Screen, a redesigned logon interface. The Welcome Screen of Windows XP, however, does not support the secure attention scenario.[24] It may be disabled in favor of the classic plain logon screen, either explicitly by the user or as a consequence of the Windows XP computer becoming part of a Windows domain network.[25] With that in mind, Windows XP uses the Ctrl+Alt+Delete in the following unique scenarios:
At a logon prompt, the key combination dismisses Welcome Screen and invokes classic logon user interface.[25]
When a user is logged on to a Windows XP computer and Welcome Screen is enabled, pressing the key combination invokes Windows Task Manager instead of Windows Security.[26]
Windows Vista and the next versions of Windows NT did not inherit any of the above.
OS/2
In OS/2, this keystroke combination is recognized by the OS/2 keyboard device driver, which notifies the session manager process.[27] The normal session manager process in OS/2 versions 2.0 and later is the parent Workplace Shell process, which displays the "system is rebooting" window and triggers a soft reboot.[28] If it is pressed twice in succession OS/2 triggers an immediate soft reboot, without waiting for the session manager process.
In both cases, the system flushes the page cache, cleanly unmounts all disc volumes, but does not cleanly shut down any running programs (and thus does not save any unsaved documents, or the current arrangements of the objects on the Workplace Shell desktop or in any of its open folders).[28][29]
Mac
Ctrl+Alt+Delete is not a keyboard shortcut on macOS. Instead, ⌘ Command+⌥ Option+Esc brings up the Force Quit panel. Control+⌘ Command+Power restarts the computer.[30]
The original Mac OS X Server had an Easter egg in which pressing Control+⌥ Option+Delete (as the Option key is the equivalent of Alt key on a Mac keyboard) would show an alert saying "This is not DOS!".[31]
Linux
On some Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu and Debian, Control+Alt+Delete is a shortcut for logging out.[32]
On Ubuntu Server, it is used to reboot a computer without logging in.[33]
Perform a hardware reboot by sending a reset signal to system via keyboard MCU (+ possible extra keycode + max 10s delay if "reset warning" is supported and in use).[34]
Perform a soft reboot without memory initialization by jumping to IPL reset vector, after broadcasting a pending shutdown event (on AT compatible machines)[4][5][35] and flushing disk caches (since DOS 6, or with FreeKEYB[16][36][37] loaded). Some 386 memory managers (e.g. QEMM) can intercept and turn this into a quick reboot.[16] If more than one task is running under multitaskers like DR-DOSEMM386 /MULTI + TASKMGR, this will only kill the currently running foreground task.[16]
Perform a soft reboot with memory initialization (aka "cold reboot") by jumping to IPL reset vector, after broadcasting a pending shutdown event (on AT compatible machines) and flushing disk caches.[16][36][37][38]
LShift+RShift+Ctrl+Alt+Delete
Perform a hard reboot by triggering the chipset's reset logic, after broadcasting a pending shutdown event and flushing disk caches.[16][36][37][38]
After logon: Brings up Windows Security; in Windows XP, brings up Windows Task Manager if the welcome screen is enabled, otherwise brings up Windows Security[40]
Ctrl+Alt+End
Used in Terminal Services to send the command to the remote session / application:
Magic SysRq key: Depending on the function key, performs a certain low-level function. Examples: sync (flush caches), reboot (forced soft reboot), unmount (remount filesystems readonly), etc.
As computers became ubiquitous, so too, has the jargon. Control-Alt-Delete can also mean "dump," or "do away with".[51]
The keystrokes are well known and infamous for escaping from problems in pop culture. For example, in the Billy Talent song "Perfect World", part of the lyrics include the sequence and associate it with resetting their memory and escaping from a situation: "Control-Alt-Deleted. Reset my memory."[52]
^When a Windows computer is locked, access to Windows is only allowed when valid credentials are supplied. Unlocking a computer is similar to a logon.
^The only way to wrest the control of Ctrl+Alt+Delete handling from Windows is to subvert its core components such as kernel or winlogon. However, a malicious program that has succeeded in breaching Windows integrity so deeply does not need to steal a password.
^ abcdeIBM Personal Computer Technical Reference (Revised ed.). IBM Corporation. March 1983.
^ abcdefIBM Personal Computer AT Technical Reference. IBM Personal Computer Hardware Reference Library. Vol. 0, 1, 2 (Revised ed.). IBM Corporation. March 1986 [1984-03]. 1502494, 6139362, 6183310, 6183312, 6183355, 6280070, 6280099.
^ abc"Windows 3.1 Resource Kit SYSTEM.INI 386ENH Section A–L". Microsoft's KnowledgeBase article 83435 (1.0 ed.). 2001-07-30 [1992]. Archived from the original on 2016-03-20. Retrieved 2005-01-07. From SYSINI.WRI in Microsoft Windows Resource Kit for Windows 3.1: LocalReboot=<on-or-off>; Default: On; Purpose: Specifies whether you can press CTRL+ALT+DEL to quit applications that cause an unrecoverable errors in 386 enhanced mode, without restarting Windows. If this setting is enabled, you can quit the applications. If this setting is disabled, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL will restart your entire system (as it normally does.)
^Iacobucci, Ed (1988). Das OS/2-Buch [OS/2 Programmer's Guide] (in German) (1st ed.). Hamburg: Osborne / McGraw-Hill Book Company GmbH (published 1989). ISBN3-89028-151-6.
^ abAlbrecht, Robert M.; Plura, Michael (1993). Das große Buch zu OS/2 Version 2 (in German) (1st ed.). Düsseldorf: Data Becker. ISBN3-89011-598-5.
^Moskowitz, David; Kerr, David (1995). OS/2 Warp Version 3 für Insider [OS/2 Warp Unleashed Deluxe Edition] (in German) (1st ed.). SAMS Publishing. ISBN3-87791-815-8.
^ abcPaul, Matthias R.; Frinke, Axel C. (1997-10-13) [first published 1991], FreeKEYB - Enhanced DOS keyboard and console driver (User Manual) (v6.5 ed.) [1] (NB. FreeKEYB is a Unicode-based dynamically configurable successor of K3PLUS supporting most keyboard layouts, code pages, and country codes.)
^ abcPaul, Matthias R.; Frinke, Axel C. (2006-01-16), FreeKEYB - Advanced international DOS keyboard and console driver (User Manual) (v7 preliminary (v6.58) ed.)
^ abFrinke, Axel C.; Paul, Matthias R. (1995-05-10) [first published 1991], K3PLUS v6 - Der ultimative Ersatz für den DOS-Standard-Tastaturtreiber KEYB GR (User Manual) (in German) (r49-v6.21 ed.) (NB. K3PLUS was an extended keyboard driver for DOS widely distributed in Germany at its time, with adaptations to a handful of other European languages available. K3PLUS.DOC is part of the K3P621P2.ZIP distribution package.)
^WordspyArchived 2007-11-15 at the Wayback Machine cites the earliest such use as Chris Miksanek's 18 December 1995 Computerworld column titled, "Ctrl-Alt-Delete those holiday trinkets".
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