Tip #91 - Three Finger Salute

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #91 - Three Finger Salute

The three-finger salute refers to the original PC-compatible system command to reboot or restart a computer by pressing three keys simultaneously: Control, Alt and Delete. The 

three-key combination is specifically designed to be impossible to execute with one hand in order to avoid the potential for accidental reboots.

When a program freezes or “hangs up” on your computer, you might not want to restart the whole computer but only the one program that isn’t responding. Using Ctrl+Alt+Delete will result in a selection of choices that varies by the version of the operating system you’re using. One of the choices will be “Start Task Manager”. This is a good starting point to identify what programs are running and which might have gotten “stuck”.  Click on the troublesome program in the list and then click the End Task button. Now you have to be patient. Clicking End Task multiple times does not make the computer respond quicker, in fact just the reverse is true. Multiple clicks slow down the process. You may get a another window saying the program is not responding. Just ignore it. If the program does not end in five minutes, you have my permission to choose Restart from the start button or hold down the power button and turn your computer off.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete is not a keyboard shortcut for anything on the Apple. However, in Mac OS X Server logon screen, pressing Control+⌥ Option+Delete (the Option key is the equivalent of Alt key on a Mac keyboard) will show an alert saying "This is not DOS." Now who says programmers don’t have a sense of humor?

The Apple system does have something comparable to the Task Manager for programs that will not Quit. ⌥Option+⌘Command+Esc will force quit applications.

Happy Computing!

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