Bill Gates admits Ctrl-Alt-Delete function was a ‘mistake’

Ctrl-Alt-Delete. We know it so well. Maybe you don’t like the keyboard feature, but don’t feel bad, Bill Gates says it was just a mistake.

 Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys on your Windows computer perform various functions when pressed simultaneously.  

In an interview at a Harvard Fundraising Campaign event, Bill Gates revealed that the well-known “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” function on Microsoft computers was actually a mistake.

The computer command is notorious for interrupting function while someone is using the computer. Depending on the type of computer you have, the “three-finger salute” can reboot the computer, invoke the task manager, or bring up the logout dialogue box.

Initially, the feature was created by David Bradley, designer of the original IBM PC. In a past interview at the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC, Bradley was reported attributing the popularity of the Ctrl-Alt-Delete to Bill Gates.

“I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous,” Bradley said.

In the interview at Harvard, Gates blamed IBM for the feature that causes users to stretch their hands a bit too far.

Bill Gates in an interview at Harvard University earlier this week. (Image via Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer)

“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,” said Gates.

What else has Gates come clean about recently?

Turns out, Gates isn’t too happy about Microsoft’s computer strategy. In a February interview with CBS News, he revealed that the company “didn’t get out in the lead very early” in regard to cell phones. He admitted that they weren’t able to grasp a leadership position like Apple has taken.

Watch the full one hour question-and-answer session with Bill Gates here.