Control Alt Delete, or Ctl+Alt+Del

If you are a computer nerd, or an ancient dinosaur like me, then you have probably heard of and used Ctl+Alt+Del. That sequence of keys, on a PC, can come in handy still. I used it more way back in the olden days of steam powered computers but it’s still useful for a few things.
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A big part of why it’s handy is to get to the Task Manager. In Windows 10 you can right click on the task bar, but not in 11. Task manager is hugely helpful in looking at what your computer is doing. Especially if there’s a window screaming at you that you have malware and to call a number on your screen. While that notice is fake, it usually can’t be closed. Task manager will allow you to end that particularly annoying task and continue on your way.

I recently was at a place where the Dell splash screen was on the computer, and the computer was otherwise frozen. I’d never seen that before. The function keys did not respond, but Ctl+Alt+Del sent the computer into a restart, which was what I wanted.

Apple computers have a similar feature, called Force Quit, using the Command+Option+Esc keys. It’s a useful function, one that I use every day. Read more about it HERE.  
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Task Manager on the PC allows you to see what jobs are running, end them if you want, and to see the performance of your system. It’s also where you can disable jobs that are part of the computer startup. Those jobs can be an unnecessary slowdown of your computer starting and running. I usually disable all of them except security related jobs. 

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