Gates Would Delete ‘Control-Alt-Delete’

'It was a mistake'

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Bill Gates wishes he could delete “control-alt-delete.”

The Microsoft founder said during a recent Harvard University fundraising event that the famed, overly-complicated three-key combination to log-on to a PC was designed to prevent other apps from providing a fake log-in prompt and stealing passwords, The Verge reports. It still exists on many PCs and even as an option on Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 8.

“It was a mistake,” the billionaire Harvard drop-out said. “We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn’t wanna give us our single button.”

Video of his Sept. 21 comments were posted online Tuesday. Watch the full conversation, or skip to 16:35 to hear Gates’ comments on the three-key combo:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHJ-8Bch4E&w=640&h=360]

[The Verge]