What bothers Bill Gates? What detail makes him explore his past again and again? The answer to both questions is the same: Ctrl+Alt+Del. In 2013, the philanthropist acknowledged that the famous key combination was a mistake, but he always insisted that its existence is the responsibility of IBM and its engineers. At the recent Bloomberg Global Business Forum, Gates admitted (again) that if he had the chance, he would go back in time to turn Ctrl+Alt+Del into a single key.
The story goes that Ctrl+Alt+Del was created by David Bradley, one of the engineers who participated in the development of the IBM 5150 (the original PC). As we know well, the combination triggers a soft reset of the computer, but originally it wasn't Ctrl+Alt+Del, but Ctrl+Alt+Esc, a command aligned with the format of the 5150 keyboard. This was very convenient for programmers and developers, however, it presented an unnecessary risk to the average user (all keys on the same side), so the decision was to replace Esc with Del and force the use of both hands. With the arrival of Windows, Ctrl+Alt+Del became part of the secure boot in the NT series, in addition to being very useful for closing unresponsive programs...
... but Bill Gates was never convinced. In fact, he doesn't hesitate to reaffirm his disappointment every time he gets the chance. This time it was during the Bloomberg Global Business Forum. When exploring the possibility of changing something about his past, the philanthropist reiterated that Ctrl+Alt+Del should have been a single key instead of three. In 2013, he said that the fault was IBM's because the designer of the standard keyboard refused to add an extra key. The funny thing is that in the mid-'90s, Microsoft already had enough firepower to implement it on its own, just as it did with the Windows key through the Microsoft Natural Keyboard.
For us this might be a minor detail, and being honest, Ctrl+Alt+Del is already encoded in the DNA of any Windows session, but in Gates's mind it is a pending subject that he won't be able to complete. After all, he is determined to continue donating his Microsoft shares, and a future return to the company he created seems almost impossible.
