Bill Gates said that a convoluted login screen was a big design flaw for Windows, but he's not taking credit for it.
The Microsoft co-founder revealed in a speech at a Harvard University fundraiser that forcing users to use the control-alt-delete key combination to log into their PCs was a mistake -- one made by IBM, the designers of the reboot combination. Gates went on to explain that the multiple-key command -- often called the three-finger salute -- was created by David Bradley, an engineer who worked on the original IBM design.
Gates said the original thought behind the design was a security measure to prevent outside applications from faking the login prompt and stealing passwords.
The command is still a possible requirement in Windows 8, used to lock the PC or access its task manager.