Three-finger salute (computing)
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- This article is about the Computer Keyboard Combination. For other meanings, see three-finger salute.
In computing, the three-finger salute is a jocular term for the keyboard combination that forces a soft reboot, brings up the process manager (on Windows, BeOS or Mac OS X) or a jump to ROM monitor. These keys are sometimes referred to in computer manuals as interrupt keys, since they are often used to interrupt the operation of a malfunctioning program. The "three-finger salute" is named after the one- and two-finger salutes, euphemistic names for rude hand gestures. Other humorous synonyms include the "Vulcan nerve pinch" or "Vulcan death grip" from the original Star Trek TV series.
[edit] See also
- David Bradley, inventor of the Control-Alt-Delete combination for the original IBM PC.
Article originally based on Three-finger salute at FOLDOC, used with permission.
| Platform | Key combo | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Acorn Machines (pre-1987) | Break | Processor reset, although confusingly always referred to as soft reset. Hold down Ctrl as well for so-called hard reset (reinitializes various settings); hold down Shift to boot from disk (or not to, if disk is the default). |
| Acorn and post-Acorn RISC OS machines. | Reset button | Processor reset, although confusingly always referred to as soft reset. Hold down Ctrl as well for so-called hard reset (reinitializes various settings); hold down Shift to boot from disk (or not to, if disk is the default). Hold down various other keys to restore CMOS settings to safe configurations. |
| Ctrl + Break | Perform a soft reboot. | |
| Amiga | Ctrl + Left Amiga (or Commodore) + Right Amiga | Reboot the machine |
| Amstrad CPC 464 and CPC6128 | Ctrl + Shift + Esc | Reset (cold) |
| Amstrad PCW | Shift + Extra + Exit | Reset (cold) |
| IBM PC under DOS | Ctrl + Alt + Del | Perform a soft reboot |
| IBM PC under Windows 3.x shell | Ctrl + Alt + Del | Close unresponsive applications or (if pressed twice) perform a soft reboot |
| IBM PC under Microsoft Windows (95, 98, and Me) | Ctrl + Alt + Del | Bring up simplistic task manager (actually "Close Program" dialog) or (if pressed twice) perform a soft reboot |
| IBM PC under Windows NT-based OS (NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista) | Ctrl + Shift + Esc | Bring up the Windows Task Manager |
| Ctrl + Alt + Del | Also known as the Secure Attention Sequence; bring up the logins screen (when pressed in login screen), or the "Windows security" dialog or (configurable on Windows 2000 and later) the Windows Task Manager (when logged in) | |
| IBM PC under OS/2 | Ctrl + Esc | Bring up the Window List (unblocking the synchronous input queue) |
| Ctrl + Alt + Del | Perform a soft reboot | |
| Ctrl + Alt + NumLock (twice) | Halt the system and begin a system dump to floppy disk | |
| IBM PC under Linux | Ctrl + Alt + Del | Signal the init process (usually configured to soft reboot) |
| Alt + SysRq + function key | Depending on the function key, performs a certain low-level function. Examples: sync (flush caches), reboot (forced soft reboot), unmount (remount filesystems readonly), etc... | |
| IBM PC under other OS | Ctrl + Alt + Del | Often (but not always) configured to reboot |
| Sinclair ZX Spectrum | Break | Halted peripheral (cassette tape or printer) operations with the report D BREAK - CONT repeats, or halted BASIC programs with the report L BREAK into program. |
| Sun workstation | L1/Stop + A | Enter ROM monitor |
| Sun workstation (serial console) | Break | Enter ROM monitor |
| Apple II family machines | Ctrl + Reset | Enter the monitor or ROM BASIC |
| Ctrl + Open Apple + Reset | Reboot the machine | |
| Ctrl + Option + Reset | Enter BIOS setup, then reboot | |
| Ctrl + Option + Apple + Reset | Self-test, then reboot | |
| Ctrl + Open Apple + Escape | (Apple IIGs) Enter the control panel | |
| Apple Macintosh computers with power button on keyboard | Cmd + Power | Enter debugger |
| Control + Cmd + Power | Reboot the machine | |
| Mac OS (7 and later) | Command + Option + Esc | Force quit applications |
| SGI workstation | Left Shift + Left Ctrl + Left Alt + Keypad Divide + F12 | Restart X server (same as Ctrl + Alt + Backspace below) |
| Commodore 64/128 | Run/Stop + Restore | Halt (soft reconfiguration) and return to READY prompt |
| X Window System | Ctrl + Alt + Backspace | Restarts windowing system, logging the user out if using an X display manager, kills X otherwise |
| TI-80, TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, TI-84 | Mode, Alpha, S | Shows ROM version number. [Enter] enters self test mode |
| TI-85, TI-86 | 2nd, Mode, Alpha, S | Shows ROM version number. [Enter] enters self test mode |
| TI-89 | 2nd + Left Arrow + Right Arrow + On | Restarts the calculator and clears RAM
Esc + On Force Break without restarting RAM |
| Voyage 200 | 2nd + Hand + On | Restarts the calculator and clears RAM |
| HP-48 | On + C | Restarts RPL, clearing the Stack and PICT, closing IO, and returning to the HOME directory (but not purging the memory) |
| On + A + F | As above, but also purges the memory | |
| BeOS | Ctrl-Alt-Shift and click an applications entry in the Deskbar | Kills application |
| Zenith IBM-PC clones | Ctrl-Alt-Ins | Brings up hardware configuration menu |
| Scientific Atlanta Explorer DHCT | Volume Down + Volume Up + Info (on settop box; not remote) | Reboots box (starts up to blue EXPLORER screen) |
| Olivetti M20 | Ctrl + Reset | Soft resets the machine |
| TI Explorer Lisp Machine | Left-Ctrl Left-Meta Right-Ctrl Right-Meta Abort | Restart the system |
