CTRL + ALT + DEL is a keyboard shortcut used to restart a computer. This key combination, which has overcome the computer barrier and is now part of popular culture, was created in a very curious way. In this article you will learn the history of how CTRL + ALT + DEL was invented.
This is how CTRL + ALT + DEL was created
The shortcut CTRL + ALT + DEL was created in 1981 by David Bradleyone of the designers of the first IBM personal computers. Bradley devised this shortcut to restart computers quickly, and to be able to skip boot memory checks, saving a lot of time on each restart.
Bradley began working for IBM in 1978. In 1981 he was selected for the "ACORN" project, which would be IBM's first personal computer. There he did everything: wrote input and output programs and solved wire board problems. Five months into working on the project, he created the famous “ctrl+alt+delete”. Created the shortcut in just five minutes and chose the keys for their location; With the DEL key on the opposite side of the keyboard, it seemed unlikely that all three would be accidentally pressed at the same time.
The shortcut was an internal tool, for him and his colleagues, since they had just enough time to finish the project and every second counted. He never thought that the shortcut would be made available to the public, much less did he imagine that it would be introduced into popular culture.
Thanks to the work of Bradley's team, the first IBM computer hit shelves in time for the fall of 1981 and shattered even the most optimistic sales predictions, going on to sell millions of units. The “Acorn” project changed computing forever and introduced computers into homes.
At that time, few users knew the shortcut, it would not be until the early 90s when it became popular thanks to Microsoft Windows. The reason was the famous Windows "blue screen of death" that blocked computers, Bradley's shortcut turned out to be a quick and simple solution to that problem that frightened users so much.
Since then, CTRL + ALT + DEL has become a very common action among computer users, and has even transcended the world of computing to become part of popular culture... just as the at sign or pound key (used to identify hashtags) did years later.
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