What do the Scroll Lock, Pause/Break and Print Screen/SysRq keys do on a keyboard ?
SCROLL LOCK If exist before the development of navigational scroll bars. For some programs, like excel, the key function as a form of placeholder: allows you to scroll with the arrow keys without moving the active cell pointer from the currently highlighted cell. Some games uses it to give access to inventories or other features. Other than that the scroll lock key is virtually useless PAUSE/BREAK • PAUSE this key allows a user to temporarily halt the action of the program being run, like in some games program. • BREAK to enable the “break” function, press CTRL+BREAK. This function “breaks” the computer from a pause or other halt position TIPS: • WINDOWS: Press WIN-Key + PAUSE/BREAK to display the SYSTEM PROPERTIES window • On early keyboards without the PAUSE key, the PAUSE function was assigned to CTRL+NUMLOCK, and the BREAK function to CTRL+SCROLL LOCK (these key-combinations still works with most programs) PRINT SCREEN/SYSRQ • PRINT SCREEN to take a snapshot of the entire desktop,
The “scroll” lock has a varied and interesting history stretching back to the distant and murky period before Tim Berners Lee invented the worldwide web. Back in those days internet connectivity meant email, an archaic predecessor of msn called talk and news groups which were similar to the web forum of today but were organised in a sort of directory structure by group and subject. Then as now, the online experience was blighted by the existence of a horrible breed of creature known as a troll. They would flame people by email or on news groups, they defiled discussions with flagrant irrelevances and caused general mayhem and havoc, some even sugesting that they invented spam and computer viruses. The situation grew worse and worse until eventually a number of hardware manufacturers came up with a solution, a special button on the keyboard to catch and stop troll activity. At that time most people with internet connectivity worked on vast shared computers called mainframes. Many users
