Instant Index: Control-Alt-Delete Command Was a Mistake, Gates Says Control-Alt-Delete Command Was a Mistake, Gates Says You probably used Control-Alt-Delete on your computer several times today. You may have used it to log on to your Microsoft computer or start the task manager. When Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates was asked today when such a clunky keystroke was engineered into those early computers, he had a pretty candid answer. We could have had a single button but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us a single button. And so we programmed a low level that you had to. ... It was a mistake," he said. That IBM engineer says he came up with Control-Alt-Delete in all of five minutes. Mehdi Taamallah/AFP/Getty Images Scientists Say They've Created Real Light Saber Scientists at MIT and Harvard say they have created a real light saber. They're solid laser beams that look like light but work just like the ones in "Star Wars."