Any key
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Any key refers to a command prompt that will be fulfilled no matter which keyboard button is pressed, and is most often seen on early operating systems that were released before mice became common. "Press Any Key" does not refer to a button labelled "Any" on the keyboard, and because of this has become a joking reference to newcomers' confusion about computers.
[edit] History
The confusion over the any key dates back at least to the days of the ZX Spectrum where "Press any key to continue" was often used as a way to ensure programs did not continue operation without gaining the user's attention. The computer would then wait for any key to be pressed by the user before continuing execution.
A few new users were confused by this reference to the any key and began wondering where the "any" key was on the keyboard. The confusion is much less common now as some computer help systems have added explicit explanations of this problem. Many computer manuals and computer programs now make other language choices to prevent this confusion, including suggesting a particular key to press such as the space bar. It should be noted that this is in fact more correct because in many situations where any key is requested to be pressed, including the DOS pause command, some macro keys (like Shift or Alt) have no effect at all whereas others don't have the desired effect. With the rise of GUI operating systems, this problem has also diminished, because user gestures are now often done with a mouse rather than a keyboard, allowing most programs to refrain from instructing users to use the keyboard.
[edit] Popular culture
The Any key novice's behavior has become a reference point used by hackers and those knowledgeable about computers to express disdain for those with less knowledge, typified by the descriptive term newbie.
The phenomenon has entered popular culture in recent years: For example, an episode of The Simpsons TV show called "King-Size Homer" shows Homer Simpson humorously searching for the any key.
The any key is also mentioned in StarCraft: Brood War where in a mission near the end of the Terran campaign a marine attempts to operate an enemy computer.
Some people assume that the IBM PC keyboard model Gateway Anykey got its name because of this in-joke.
It's also quite often referred to in the comic strip User Friendly, mostly in the strips dealing with tech support.
