This post has been corrected.
At the Bloomberg Global Business Forum today, Carlyle Group co-founder and CEO David Rubenstein asked Microsoft founder Bill Gates to account for one of the most baffling questions of the digital era: Why does it take three fingers to lock or log in to a PC, and why did Gates ever think that was a good idea?
Grimacing slightly, Gates deflected responsibility for the ctrl+alt+delete key command, saying, “clearly, the people involved should have put another key on to make that work.” Rubenstein pressed him: Does he regret the decision?
“You can’t go back and change the small things in your life without putting the other things at risk,” Gates said.
But: “Sure. If I could make one small edit I would make that a single key operation.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that ctrl+alt+delete turns on a PC. The command has several functions; starting the machine is not one of them.