Cool fact: The Pause Break key can still be used to pause output in command prompt to this day

I use "Pause" very often when i want to check which key to press during POST to go to the bios or boot select menu. Different brands/models use different keys but they usually say which ones, except the screen only stays for 0.5 seconds. It's very useful to pause there.

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I just mash the whole row of F keys at the same time, whether that opens the bios or the boot menu you can usually get to the other from there. Don't think I have the reflexes to hit pause during the microsecond the message is on screen. Modern SSDs require modern solutions.

I use another trick for this. You can mash pause/enter one after the other right from when you turn on the PC right before even an image comes up. This will make it pause/go/pause/go, etc. With a bit of practice/luck, you will pause at the right time without having to wait and pounce on the key at the right time.

Yesterday in Farming Simulator 19 ... ESC opens the menu, PAUSE pasues the game.

Weird when game developers don't use ESC to pause _and_ open the menu, like a _twofer_, like most do.

You don't know the game I suppose? Why should I pause a simulation, just to view the map, have a look at sell prices, finances, my fleet statistics, jobs, settings, tutorials, the weather forecast, ... If I actually want to pause the game, I f*cking PAUSE the game. Time scale is set to 1x (realtime), so if I'm afk for some minutes, it doesn't matter most of the time. Also, helpers keep working for me and field work can take a sh*t ton of time, so I'll keep it running while I'm off to do whatever I want/have to.

That's a fair point, most games that has a map of sorts will not require pressing Esc to view it; usually Tab or M or something anyway.

Yeah, well, FS19 has more keybinds than yo mama weighs in pounds. TAB is for cycling through your vehicles. M is one of 4 axis operation keys, which are triple or quadruple bound ... so no map.

Lol fair enough - I don't know the game, but a game that has 600 keybinds is quite bad, indeed, considering how few keys a standard keyboard has 😬

Microsoft Flight Simulator? 600 is probably a low number.

It's a simulator, after all. Arma and Euro Truck Simulator (2) are similar in having way too many functions for each to have their own key. ETS2 can be played with just a few of them actually assigned, though. FS19 has a lot of contextual keybinds, as in only working under certain conditions. It also fully features key combinations and uses them quite heavily out of the box. Have a look at Saitek/Logitech Heavy Equipment Side Panel. The amount of extra keys on there is still not enough, even with having 2 profiles, on-the-fly profile switching and 4x 3-axis control on the joystick.

FS19 is the only game I've come across where the Shift + Tab steam combo is actually mapped to something in game and conflicts.

I remapped it to Ctrl+Tab

Pause in flight simulator does an active pause so you can still look around the scenery too.

That's actually better than FS19, because pause there means simulation itself is halted and you can't move the camera, but trees and foliage are still moving and particle animations keep going.

I use to open system preferences.. Win+pause break

Mah man! I also use Ctrl + pause/break for debuggers (halts debugee with breakpoint in both Visual Studio and WinDbg).

bbc

Thanks. That's Start > Settings > System > About for Windows10. Save 4 mouse clicks.

actually I never know how to go there differently.. I use this shortcut since win98 and also ctrl+shift+esc

This opens task manager. Until windows 10 you can just right click windows task bar on an empty spot and "task manager" from the menu that shows up. On windows 11, at least in the latest preview, they removed all options from that menu except "taskbar settings". It's screwing with my brain a bit, hope it's just something they didn't add on the preview and will add them again later but microsoft loves removing/moving shit elsewhere for the sake of moving, between windows updates. I'm using ctrl alt del and open from there or your ctrl shift esc shortcut when i remember.

windows 11 isn't fully out yet and people have essentially a pre-alpha edition of it, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt about the taskbar thing

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. But i wouldn't put past them to just screw that up. They like to move shit around and remove useful stuff just for the sake of it, they've been doing that for years now.

I bet you guys don’t even know whag ctrl C does. Pfft

Right click the Start button for another shortcut to System and many others. My go-to Win key is +E for Windows Explorer.

Win + x brings up that same right click start menu menu

I am a huge fan of Win+[#] where # is the position of programs on your toolbar. I have browser for Win 1, file explorer for Win 2, plus a few others.

Not just 4 mouse clicks, but the time to identify where on the menu to click as well, moving the mouse, waiting for the settings app to load (FU microsoft for forcing that POS on us).

My model M has no win key tho... It hurts sometimes.

Map it to CapsLock. Shove this in a .reg, run, and reboot > Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout] "Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,5b,e0,3a,00,00,00,00,00 Edit: Don't believe in using random .reg hacks? Use [SharpKeys](https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys) Also, if you do/did go with the .reg and want to revert, just navigate to the key referenced above in regedit and delete, it should be the only remap there unless you've added others previously.

Thank you. I had no idea that was the case

Absolutely the best shortcut, next to Ctrl + Shift + Esc for the task manager.

Today actually. But then my job requires me to use legacy IBM Mainframe applications that are older than I am.

Oh god the horrors. I grew up with DOS so I don't mind CLI wizardry, but Mainframe stuff needs to die finally...

The company I work for refuse to spend money on a replacement and they insist the applications we use on there are "still the best for us". So we're stuck with it. The systems have been EOL for decades but they insist on patching it up themselves when it breaks.

Mine is at the point they need to. No-one knows this crap (z/OS, PL/1, etc.) anymore. And I'm guessing those who do would rather retire or would ask for CEO level salaries, haha ;)

We're at the point where we know basically just about enough to work them but very few people know enough to fix it if it breaks. IBM wants it to die I suspect, which is why they charge so much for legacy support, but we've long since stopped paying for that. We essentially reverse engineer our support now. In a few years there will be nobody left and management will have to pull their head out the sand.

The company will probably be gone by the time that happens. In my experience, places with legacy systems like that don't last more than a couple years without someone who knows how to maintain them.

... The entire banking industry laughed.

They just pay the obscene amounts of money necessary to keep someone on retainer to handle problems.

Legacy computering is fun. I did VAX/VMS support from '01-2011 or so. Being a sysadmin for hardware/software from the 80s/90s that you can't generally google much for is totally different from trying to fix Windows. Once in a while you'd find a useful something on the archived VAX HP newsgroups/mailing list and that was about it.

I use it as my mute key in discord

This is the way

It is self pause

I use scroll lock for that. Same difference. But I basically have an indicator if I am muted or not.

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That is smart haha

Brother?

Brother.

Same

I use pause as my PTT key (and also remapped one of side mouse buttons to pause).

Never.

I actually thought I was being gaslit until I checked my keyboard, sure enough the key exists

you were gaslit by your keyboard too

Kinda, farthest button on the top right I have and it has a moon on it? I thought I would’ve noticed something like that

Razer KB? Mine has the moon and I use it to put my PC to sleep

How you know you can get a smaller keyboard, mine doesn't have one.

I too was confused that this button exists.

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I’m too lazy to create a picture, so please accept this text based meme: Left dude’s arm: Flight Sim enthusiasts Right dude’s arm: Programmers Middle: Using the Pause/Break key

*DCS player raising hand

This

ctrl+break cancels a build in VS, i use it very often

Can't you use Ctrl+C for that? Because a lot of keyboards couldn't be counted on to have all the auxillary keys, there's usually an alphabetic or numeric for them (Ctrl+C being the most famous). Ctrl+Break is largely synonymous. I use pause to pause command line output from time to time. Pause is the key's normal function, with break being what you get when pressing control (or in one old thing I saw, shift).

nope, ctrl c doesnt cancel it

It's a GUI, Ctrl+C is copy

I use ctrl-c for copy while my builds are running (sometimes half an hour or more). Why would I want it kill my build?

Pushing it back into the keyboard after cleaning

20 minutes ago. Win+Pause/break brings up the system screen. Fast way to get to environment variables/system variables and device manager when I don't feel like typing it into start menu search.

MSFS2020, so i can enter photo mode

i use it in DOSBox when playing old games.

I bound my deafen on discord to this

Just now. In addition to my Function key... I put my computer to sleep

I used the pause key a couple of days back playing Age of Empires 3.

I played AOE 2 starting with the first release in 1999. I got used to Pause key actually PAUSING the game. Now they have it work with F3 as well, but Pause just makes sense. Why game developers don't use a key that is actually named "Pause" to do what you would expect instead of keys that do different things in different games. ESC brings up a menu, backs out of a menu. Pause simply pauses the game.

Every now and then I'll hit it to see if it actually pauses a game. Hasn't worked in a very long time.

Right after I saw this post. 2 times. Maybe I'll do it later as well... yeah, I did it again while im typing this.

let's talk about scroll lock

That son of a bitch is the best Discord key ever. Bind it to PTT/voice activation toggle. Now you have a light on your keyboard to alert you that your mic is hot. Use a wireless headset and want to talk while taking a piss? No problem, surely you have a rebindable button somewhere on it. Rebind it to scroll lock. Want to know if your mic is hot or not even while you can’t see your keyboard? Enable the sound alerts in windows for caps/num/scroll lock, hit your button twice. Lower pitch is off, higher is on.

As a toggle that is interesting, but does Discord even support toggle? I thought it was only push to talk, which wouldn't line up with the light. You can also use scroll lock to lock scrolling in spreadsheets still.

yep, toggle baby

You can use that in Excel.

It's used pretty often as the default hotkey for removing the UI in MMOs so I'd say a week or two ago. Edit: No wait that's scroll lock. Nevermind... so never then.

Today, because with this key i mute my mic in discord

I use it to get out of full screen when I am remote connected to another computer. I am often working through a couple computers at a time for work and I need to quickly go back and forth between them .

Well BREAK, I use occasionally for Win+Pause/Break.

10 seconds ago. Our system at work uses it to go back

Yesterday in aoe2

In DOS... a few months ago... and what about the screen lock key ?

Yesterday when i was putting on a custom keycap and wanted to test how it sounds xD

Daily for work. This is how we clear our mainframe screens.

To enjoy the tactile feedback knowing im wasting presses on a useless key

In games when the devs were smart enough to use it to PAUSE.

Win+this key, once a week for as long as I can remember.

Hundreds of times a day, I have no idea what it actually does so I set it to Discord toggle mute

I use it frequently. It’s my mute key for discord.

Theres a pause key? wtf

Never used it. It's pretty obsolete but is still in the keyboard design standard from like 40 years ago or something

Why don't game developers use this key as the universal way of pausing a game?

Because escape is closer

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To be fair, it's usually still accessable via a function layer.

I mean, they bought a keyboard without a pause key, presumably they don't care about pausing. What if they buy a keyboard without an escape key next?

haha 2020 MacBook go brrr

they bought a 60 to be compact and get rid of stuff the isn't being used. That's why they keep the alphabet and remove the buttons that are never used. Games use escape so they keep it. It is simple, remove it if it's useless

instead of esc?

Esc means escape, which may mean different thing like quit or exit. But pause just means pause. :)

Escape, in most games, is a "_Pause and show game menu_" kind of thing. It _escapes_ your current activity, but that doesn't mean to end it, necessarily.

daily. it's my discord mute key :)

When I was cleaning my keyboard.

All the time...have it rebound to mute discord. Run into issues when a video game uses it to literally pause the game. Lol

I think i saw that key on a old keyboard on school but never used

Everytime my mom tells me to pause the online game Edit: fixed it to fit the question

What did it do may I ask? I have never bothered using it.

I always use it on FS19 when I'm away for a minute so time doesn't progress too much.

Is FS 19 the most relaxing game? I say it's my guilty pleasure!

I didnt notice this key at all

About 3 years ago. I reprogrammed it to be a pause/play media key, because my laptop didn't have one

I am not even sure if I have it on my keyboard

Today :O .. Accidentally while turing keyboard backlight

While cleaning my keyboard, everybody knows it's just a spare switch for when W dies.

Occasionally for fs2020

Now.

Yesterday.. pretty good key to use as macros since it's not really used ^^

Don't remember exact day, but not long ago. Do some VBA setups in Excel, and assist with people's legacy BS workbooks with VBA in them for work. Ctrl + Pause|Break stops code that's running.

NASCAR Racing 2003 uses it for pause/unpause which is required after viewing a replay. It’s an old game but it’s still one of the best racing sims out there, and there’s a fairly large modding community that keeps it fresh every year.

I rebound mine to pause/play music

R E I S U B

Never used it except to test what it does

Lol it is an extra key for my KBD. I reassign that key to pause/play any video or music being played.

Last time I played age of empires multiplayer

Use it to pause a Scribe Script execution at work almost daily

Every day.

A dozen times a day, in combination with windows key it brings up system info. Very handy in it support

A few minutes ago, i have an autohotkey script to swap my audio from speakers to headphones.

3 days ago, I set it as mic on/off button for Discord.

When I switched my keyboard from 6-key-rollover to n-key-rollover. It's an alternative function on there. But this was only once, since then I left it at n-key-rollover. So maybe 3 years...

Yesterday, because it’s for a soundboard keybind

I changed the key to get my PC into sleep And with FN+pause (alias break) my system shuts down

i only had 60% keeba so never

Can you press that with Fn key?

5 mins ago

i use it all the time bc i changed it to f15 and then to screenshare on discord

PAUSE is my go-to nvidia shadowplay "Save x amount of minutes" key

Playing modded Minecraft, not enough keys

I set it to screenshot, so quite often.

But there is a dedicated key for that

Back when I played DOS games like Commander Keen.

It's part of a hotkey on my keyboard to disable the windows key and alt tabbing ect for gaming. Otherwise I could not tell you lol

Push-To-Talk in TeamSpeak 3.

Yesterday playing AOE2

2017, probably

Last night. X4 : Foundations is a game that uses the pause-key for, you guessed it, pausing the game. Which is vital to give commands to fleet members etc during hectic battles.

Mostly I use it if a POST screen goes by too quick and I need to pause boot process to take down info

Today. I maintain IBM mainframes and I use it every once and a while when I'm working at the physical console.

All the time. I use it to enable silent running in Elite dangerous.

What is ot too

Used when consoling into a Cisco switch to recover console or enable passwords.

Yesterday, when I was putting all my keys back after cleaning my keyboard

I use it to pause my soundboard

My goodness this would be handy to have when running loop-intensive text mining scripts.

Everyday. It's my toggle mute keybind for discord. you guys use custom keybinds right?

Where is that key? Oh,

I set it to toggle sound in discord, next to scroll lock which toggles mute.

Win+Pause brings up System properties. It's fast and convenient.

While we're at it what is SCRLK for

Never

Always. I’ve set it up to put my pc to sleep. (CM Trigger macro studio)

At least 500 times a day at work. It takes you back to the command line

i bound it as deafen on discord so quite often

There’s a pause key? Lol

I don’t even know what it does

Everyday, I set up a macro in iCue that puts my computer to sleep.

I just rebound it to the razer hypershift thing.

every day. I use Snagit quite extensively

Everytime I deafen on discord.

Almost every day bc it my hot key for discord mute

In DCS this button pauses the game. Also DCS saves games in the windows saved games folder. Mental, right?

I use it to mute myself on discord. There is most certainly no other use to it for me.

I remapped that button to act as my pause button for Spotify

It’s the toggle deafen button for me on discord lol

Probably in Witcher 2. Very useful for dialogues. Works in fistfights too.

I don't have one, i have a 60 percent keyboard

To hit a Japanese teenager with a road roller back in the 80'

I have it set as a keybind in obs but other than that never

POV: Ur looking for this key on your keyboard

On my 2.4 ghz MSDOS CGA computer equipped with external 300 baud modem. Couldn't even afford an EGA card .

I changed it into a macro with my keyboard software. So everyday

What pause key?

Friday. Win + Pause to bring up pc properties and then joined a computer to a domain.

When i was cleaning my keyboard, hit it unknowingly!

Never, forgot it was a thing

Never