Humorous depiction of any key on a PC keyboard

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Keyboard-anykey. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Keyboard-anykey. ... A computer keyboard is a peripheral modeled after the typewriter keyboard. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The first computer mouse In the context of computing, a mouse (plural (generally): mice, also mouses) consists of a hand-held pointing device, designed to sit under one hand of the user and to detect movement relative to its two-dimensional supporting surface. ... Noob redirects here. ... A Lego RCX Computer is an example of an embedded computer used to control mechanical devices. ...

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. The ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. ...

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. A computer keyboard Space bar is a key on an alphanumeric keyboard in the form of a horizontal bar in the lowermost row, significantly wider than other keys. ... The shift key on a modern Windows keyboard The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate upper characters. ... The Alt key on a modern Windows keyboard The Alt key on an IBM PC keyboard is the key located immediately to either side of the Space bar, used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys. ... GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... The first computer mouse In the context of computing, a mouse (plural (generally): mice, also mouses) consists of a hand-held pointing device, designed to sit under one hand of the user and to detect movement relative to its two-dimensional supporting surface. ...

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. Hackers are sometimes portrayed as mysterious and strange. ... Noob redirects here. ...

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. Popular culture, or pop culture, (literally: the culture of the people) consists of the cultural elements that prevail (at least numerically) in any given society, mainly using the more popular media, in that societys vernacular language and/or an established lingua franca. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... King-Size Homer is the seventh episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ... Homer Jay Simpson is a main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. ...

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. StarCraft: Brood War is an expansion pack released in 1998 for StarCraft — an award winning real-time strategy computer game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ...

Some people assume that the IBM PC keyboard model Gateway Anykey got its name because of this in-joke. The IBM PC keyboard and its derivative computer keyboards are standardized. ... Gateway, Inc. ... Gateways AnyKey Keyboard The Gateway AnyKey is a programmable PC keyboard that was sold with desktop computers from the Gateway 2000 company roughly from 1990 to 1995. ... An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ...

It's also quite often referred to in the comic strip User Friendly, mostly in the strips dealing with tech support. For the concept in software engineering, see user-friendliness. ...

External links

• TPG FAQ: Where is the any key?
• Compaq FAQ: Where do I find the "Any" key on my keyboard? (FAQ2859)