The Break Button: A Keyboard Mystery Solved
As you sit at your desk, staring blankly at your computer screen, you suddenly get an idea. You glance down at your keyboard and wonder what would happen if you actually hit that key. In a moment of desperation, you spring into action, mashing your index finger down on the key, and as it bottoms out, your boss freezes in place, as if mesmerized by a delightful coffee appearing right in front of them. Pause, am I right? Well, no, not quite.
But what is the break button actually there for? Unlike the scroll lock key, which doesn't even toggle that little light on your keyboard, the origins of the break key date back to the 1800s, when zesty memes were sent via telegraph rather than the internet. Back then, if two people were communicating via teleprinter, one person could press the break key to interrupt the sender and let them know that the other end needed to transmit something. This was often used when a new source had some breaking news to report, allowing others to stay informed in real-time.
Even though teleprinters have long been obsolete, the break keys stuck around on computer keyboards as a means to stop or terminate a running program. This functionality was much more common back before graphical operating systems were a thing. However, for those of us who don't spend our days debugging code or working with ancient mainframes, the break key is largely a relic of the past.
But what can we do with this obscure keyboard button? For one, you can still use control plus break to terminate a program in DOS or other text-only environments. And on a more practical note, system administrators may still use the break key if their PC is connected to a mainframe and they need to interrupt the boot process to recover a password. This might not be directly applicable to our everyday lives, but it's interesting nonetheless.
So, what's the most common use for the break button? Pausing that flow of text you see on your computer screen when you fire up your system. Perhaps you want to take a look at those BIOS messages to understand or troubleshoot any issues you're having. Keep in mind that this might not work on every PC, but it's worth trying.
One more modern application for the pause button is holding down the Windows key and pressing the break button, which brings up your system property screen. Some games also allow you to press the pause button to pause gameplay, making sense right? But what makes us wonder why this isn't a standard feature across all platforms?
Fortunately, there's an alternative solution: hotkey software. You can program this extraneous button to do whatever you like β be it in games or Adobe Premiere. Just don't expect it to bring a halt to those incessant work messages about how you need to find a way to make episodes about obscure keyboard buttons more compelling.
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TunnelBear also handles the annoying details that come with using a VPN for personal use, such as port configurations, DNS settings, or other router settings. The company has a top-rated privacy policy, meaning they don't log user activity. And right now, you can try out TunnelBear VPN with 500 megabytes of free data and no credit card required. If you choose to get a year of unlimited data, you'll save 10 by going to tunnelbear.com.
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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos alright so it's around 2 30 p.m you're stuck at work and you're desperate to get away for a coffee because your boss is breathing down your neck for i don't know a line graph or something but suddenly you glance down at your keyboard and you get an idea what would happen if i actually hit that key so you spring into action mashing your index finger down on it and as it bottoms out your boss freezes and a delightful coffee appears right in front of you pause break am i right well no no i'm not right so what is the break button actually there for then i mean unlike the scroll lock key which you can learn more about up here it doesn't even toggle that little light on your keyboard well the origins of the break key actually go all the way back to the 1800s when zesty memes were sent via telegraph rather than the internet back then if two people were communicating via teleprinter one person could press break to break the circuit which effectively interrupted the sender and let them know that the other end needed to transmit something this usually happened when one new source that was sharing a telegraph line with others has some breaking news to report but even though teleprinters have long been obsolete the break keys stuck around on computer keyboards as a means to stop or terminate a running program now this functionality was much more common back before graphical operating systems were a thing but for fun you can still use control plus break to terminate a program in dos or in other text only environments but on a more practical note you might also still see a system administrator using the break key if a pc is connected to a mainframe and they have to interrupt the boot process to recover a password but that doesn't have much applicability to you folks at home does it so a far more common use for you would be to pause that flow of text you might see on your own computer at boot time like if you'd like to see bios messages that might help you understand or troubleshoot any issues you're having now it doesn't work on every pc but gives a shot the next time you fire up your system if you're curious the pause button will also stop any huge avalanche of text scrolling down your screen if you're using command prompt and even if you can't be bothered to care about anything that has to do with old school command line computing there are still two modern applications for pause break holding down the windows key and pressing pause break will bring up your system property screen and some games will let you press pause to pause your gameplay makes sense right it does make me wonder why that isn't the standard but even if your favorite game doesn't use the pause key for this purpose you can always use hotkey software to make this extraneous button do whatever you'd like be it in games or in adobe premiere just whatever you program it to do don't expect it to bring a halt to those incessant work messages about how you need to find a way to make episodes about obscure keyboard buttons more compelling maybe we should have thrown in some more explosions and speaking of explosions would you like your internet experience to be more explosive and exciting well then check out tunnelbear vpn which lets you tune into 20 different countries allowing you to browse the internet and use online searches as if you're in a different country they have easy to use apps for ios android pc and mac and a chrome extension just choose the country in the app turn tunnelbear on and watch as your bear tunnels your internet connection to your new location when you turn tunnelbear on two things happen your connection gets encrypted with aes 256-bit encryption and your public ip address gets switched so you can show up as if you're in a different country tello bear lets you bypass all the annoying details that typically come with using a vpn for personal use there's no need to mess around with port configurations dns or any other router settings total bearer handles all that for you in the background they also have a top rated privacy policy and do not log user activity right now you can try out tunnelbear vpn with 500 megabytes of free data with no credit card required and if you choose to get a year of unlimited data you can save 10 by going to tunnelbear.com linus alright thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other channels up here comment with video suggestions and don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon so you won't miss any of our videosthanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos alright so it's around 2 30 p.m you're stuck at work and you're desperate to get away for a coffee because your boss is breathing down your neck for i don't know a line graph or something but suddenly you glance down at your keyboard and you get an idea what would happen if i actually hit that key so you spring into action mashing your index finger down on it and as it bottoms out your boss freezes and a delightful coffee appears right in front of you pause break am i right well no no i'm not right so what is the break button actually there for then i mean unlike the scroll lock key which you can learn more about up here it doesn't even toggle that little light on your keyboard well the origins of the break key actually go all the way back to the 1800s when zesty memes were sent via telegraph rather than the internet back then if two people were communicating via teleprinter one person could press break to break the circuit which effectively interrupted the sender and let them know that the other end needed to transmit something this usually happened when one new source that was sharing a telegraph line with others has some breaking news to report but even though teleprinters have long been obsolete the break keys stuck around on computer keyboards as a means to stop or terminate a running program now this functionality was much more common back before graphical operating systems were a thing but for fun you can still use control plus break to terminate a program in dos or in other text only environments but on a more practical note you might also still see a system administrator using the break key if a pc is connected to a mainframe and they have to interrupt the boot process to recover a password but that doesn't have much applicability to you folks at home does it so a far more common use for you would be to pause that flow of text you might see on your own computer at boot time like if you'd like to see bios messages that might help you understand or troubleshoot any issues you're having now it doesn't work on every pc but gives a shot the next time you fire up your system if you're curious the pause button will also stop any huge avalanche of text scrolling down your screen if you're using command prompt and even if you can't be bothered to care about anything that has to do with old school command line computing there are still two modern applications for pause break holding down the windows key and pressing pause break will bring up your system property screen and some games will let you press pause to pause your gameplay makes sense right it does make me wonder why that isn't the standard but even if your favorite game doesn't use the pause key for this purpose you can always use hotkey software to make this extraneous button do whatever you'd like be it in games or in adobe premiere just whatever you program it to do don't expect it to bring a halt to those incessant work messages about how you need to find a way to make episodes about obscure keyboard buttons more compelling maybe we should have thrown in some more explosions and speaking of explosions would you like your internet experience to be more explosive and exciting well then check out tunnelbear vpn which lets you tune into 20 different countries allowing you to browse the internet and use online searches as if you're in a different country they have easy to use apps for ios android pc and mac and a chrome extension just choose the country in the app turn tunnelbear on and watch as your bear tunnels your internet connection to your new location when you turn tunnelbear on two things happen your connection gets encrypted with aes 256-bit encryption and your public ip address gets switched so you can show up as if you're in a different country tello bear lets you bypass all the annoying details that typically come with using a vpn for personal use there's no need to mess around with port configurations dns or any other router settings total bearer handles all that for you in the background they also have a top rated privacy policy and do not log user activity right now you can try out tunnelbear vpn with 500 megabytes of free data with no credit card required and if you choose to get a year of unlimited data you can save 10 by going to tunnelbear.com linus alright thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other channels up here comment with video suggestions and don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon so you won't miss any of our videos\n"
