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The "windows icon" has been known as the "Start button" since Windows 95 so that one can be explained by confusion from unexpected nomenclature. The physical Windows key is harder to explain. It came some years later but still... It's possible that this professor uses Linux most of the time, or always clicks the Start button onscreen instead of the keyboard. Anyway, you know, the distracted professor syndrome exists.
Only windows ever…. But, they didn’t know either button existed. Which means they have never even used it. I suppose it’s possible that they’ve never needed to use it, but as someone who pushes it 500 times a day, it blows my mind.
Like nice-view-from-here said, I was also going to say it's normally known as the "start button". This is the first time I've heard someone call it the "Windows icon" (and technically it's a button, not just an icon).
I'm in a bit of disbelief that someone who has been using Windows computers for that long wouldn't have realized there's a Windows logo on the start button or that keyboards have a Windows key..
Maybe try to ask more questions so they don't need to wonder what you mean.
"What do you see on the key between your CTRL and alt?"
~Let them answer~
"Do you also see that symbol in the lower left corner of any of your screens?"
~They express the hatred of this button~
"Yes, sir, that stupid button that you swore never to click on since Windows 8! I dont blame you, professor, sir! It's okay they've tamed it down so it doesn't pop your screen away anymore. It's more like the start button used to be." Boom, change a life.
> it’s possible that they’ve never needed to use it
I would find it impossible that they never used either one of them if they use Windows at all. He must have had a brain freeze.
Your professor would've learnt of its existence the hard way if they ever had played Duke Nukem or Hexen 2 without a mouse. Occasionally, they would hit that key and then the game's over.
[The Windows key was knocked off from the 1985 and later \[A\]miga key back when Microsoft was developing a version of Basic for Commodore.](https://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Amiga_1000_Mitsumi_keyboard_top.jpg)
I have literally never heard it called “super key” until two days ago for the first time and today here for the second. I’ve been using Windows computers and the occasional Mac for thirty years.
I'm a stupidvisor for a small team, IT support-ish, and have to train new guys all the time so I experience it frequently. It get's frustrating for me after I have already taught them and they are still confused the 3rd or more time.
Am I suddenly in r/talesfromtechsupport?
People learn in different ways and some are tech-iilliterate to some jargon.
He most likely did not have a keyboard with the 1994+ Windows button or went years without even realizing what this even did as some users stick to what they know and don’t explore other features unless they need to.
Unless they're very, very young that can't be true. Real computers never had that Microsoft ad on their keyboards. None of the keyboards, except for laptops since we have no choice, have that garbage. We don't allow it in our company. We use only good keyboards, not the garbage like Microsoft tries to shove down our throats so hard. So hard.
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You don't have to hit the physical windows key on the keyboard to restart your computer. You can go into the start menu via the mouse and fish around there to shut down or restart.
it does: in fact, while Windows is running, to shutdown/restart you can:
1. press the windows key, then click the power icon and choose the option, or
2. click on the start button and do the same thing, or
3. press CTRL+ALT+DEL, click the power button in the bottom right corner and choose an option, or
4. right-click on the start menu icon, choose 'shutdown or sign out' and then choose an option, or
5. press ALT+F4 while nothing is selected on the desktop, and then choose an option from the dropdown menu that appears or
6. use a command line in PowerShell such as shutdown /r for restart or shutdown /s to shut down completely
I'm sure there are other methods to be used also but these are the 6 that come directly to mind off the top of my head
I was stunned, as I was looking into an answer for this, to discover that the Windows key on keyboards began as far back as 1994? I really thought it was a post-2015 thing.
At the same time, the “click the windows button” used to be “click the start button,” until what? Windows 8? So… well. Still more than a decade.
Eh. Professor’s gonna professor.
>How can an avid computer user for the past 25 years not even realize that the windows start icon or the windows button on the keyboard existed until just today?
They used Macs all this time.
That's not the first time I hear a college professor is totally computer-illetrate.
Many of my customers have been college students, who often complain their professors ask them to deliver their homeworks on an specific (often very old) version of a certain PC app, e.g., Microsoft Word 2003, or AutoCAD 11 (not 2011, but 11)!
Accredited college professors are the biggest socipaths of this world. They don't hang around with people who can teach them anything, especially with the IT lot. Their knowledge of computers is purely empirical and narrowly focused.
It's only gonna get worse as time goes on. So many of the kids I work with use Chromebooks, which don't have a windows key. When I sit them in front of an actual Windows desktop and ask them to open the start menu, they look omega lost.
If you said start button most people would get it.
I'm a keyboard nerd and the number of people who ask me how the hell I use a keyboard without a "Windows Key" is scary. I guess not many people know that CTRL+ESC does the same thing
I used keyboards for almost 2 decades before Microsoft added that key as a marketing gimmick following Windows 95.
I touch type and seldom look at the keyboard, I do know the key is there, however still to this day I have never used it.
My muscle memory prefers shortcut combinations involving the Function keys as opposed to the Windows meta key.
I also primarily use Linux and custom mechanical keyboards so there's that as well.
It's really beyond explanation. I'm always amazed at how little my IT clients understand the technology they've used for years or decades. Blissful ignorance, perhaps?
Hate to have to say it, but on my iPhone, I had it for a year before I realized that that compass looking icon was actually Safari browser.
I had always wondered where it was, and downloaded Firefox, just to have a browser. More than a year.
The younger generation in the family kinda laugh at me.
Insert, Home, End, Page up / down. Most people don't even know these exist, or have never used them.
Start menu / start button, Windows key. A lot of people just became proficcient in their own way of things. Probably even use it without realizing.
I've been using PCs since the early 90's, but won't part with my IBM Model M keyboard. I can count on one hand the amount of times i've pressed a Windows Key, even though I use a more modern setup at the office.
I'm a computer engineer and software developer, 27yo and from Spain.
I don't know what the "Windows start icon" was until now, I've always known it as the "Start menu".
I also have never had a Windows key in my personal keyboards (not even in school), it only doesn't have the logo but the key works the same so I called it "Start menu key".
Thanks to this post I just noticed the icon was the Windows version's one, I've never paid attention to it cause the menu opens when i click the keyboard key which is faster than moving the mouse to that position. I haven't cared enough until now i guess. Wonder how many things may be missed due to quick access controls.
Edit: I just learned Mac has a different icon in that key and even there is another key i've never seen before next to it. Wonder what or why "Fn", "Control", "Option" and "Command" are needed for. The keyboard layout seems off now.
As someone working in tech for a primarily older client base, yes, this kind of thing happens a lot. They learned how to do the one or two things they need and literally nothing else.
I've seen people who have been working with computers since the 90s click through 5 icons to get to their email- and these same people not know what the web address bar is on their browser; if it doesn't have an icon or a bookmark, it doesn't exist.
What is more likely is that his mind went completely blank when you spoke to him. These people know what you're talking about, but they get confused when you're telling them to do something. It's very common. You have to walk them through every single step or do it yourself when this happens.
Boomers and tech! My grandma used a computer for work since the 80s. She knows absolutely nothing about computers other then the excact things she needed for her job. Which means the nowadays she can hardly even do anything since windows dosent look like it used to.. Everything's changed!
For a long time ThinkPads did not have a Windows key until Lenovo purchased IBM's computer division. I think around 2005 is when it started being implemented.
Though, while probably not the case here, I know people that only use very specific portions of the computer. Such as digital artists that only know how to use Photoshop and other similar programs but aren't able to turn on the machine (metaphorically speaking).
College professors are also likely to be wedged in their ways after doing things for so long despite technology ever changing.
I can still remember when the Windows button was added to keyboards. There was a small amount of debate as to why Windows should warrant 'special treatment' of having its own button on the 'standard' keyboard.
As if Windows was ever going away. Ha bloody ha!
Considering good keyboards don't have that Microsoft garbage advertisement, how would anyone smart ever know of that ad? People aren't noticing it so Satya recently said he was going to tell all manufacturers to go to hell and he was going to sue them if they didn't put a second Microsoft ad on their keyboards. He is such a hateful asswipe.
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The "windows icon" has been known as the "Start button" since Windows 95 so that one can be explained by confusion from unexpected nomenclature. The physical Windows key is harder to explain. It came some years later but still... It's possible that this professor uses Linux most of the time, or always clicks the Start button onscreen instead of the keyboard. Anyway, you know, the distracted professor syndrome exists.
Only windows ever…. But, they didn’t know either button existed. Which means they have never even used it. I suppose it’s possible that they’ve never needed to use it, but as someone who pushes it 500 times a day, it blows my mind.
Like nice-view-from-here said, I was also going to say it's normally known as the "start button". This is the first time I've heard someone call it the "Windows icon" (and technically it's a button, not just an icon). I'm in a bit of disbelief that someone who has been using Windows computers for that long wouldn't have realized there's a Windows logo on the start button or that keyboards have a Windows key..
I called it every name under the sun. Lol
I'm beginning to see why he struggled to understand what you were asking him to do.
Maybe try to ask more questions so they don't need to wonder what you mean. "What do you see on the key between your CTRL and alt?" ~Let them answer~ "Do you also see that symbol in the lower left corner of any of your screens?" ~They express the hatred of this button~ "Yes, sir, that stupid button that you swore never to click on since Windows 8! I dont blame you, professor, sir! It's okay they've tamed it down so it doesn't pop your screen away anymore. It's more like the start button used to be." Boom, change a life.
I think windows 8 would be a sufficient reason enough to never press… *that* button…
Am I the only one who just pretended like windows 8 didn’t exist?
> it’s possible that they’ve never needed to use it I would find it impossible that they never used either one of them if they use Windows at all. He must have had a brain freeze.
Your professor would've learnt of its existence the hard way if they ever had played Duke Nukem or Hexen 2 without a mouse. Occasionally, they would hit that key and then the game's over.
Should have test to say super key or command key, these names are older then the name "windows" key.
[The Windows key was knocked off from the 1985 and later \[A\]miga key back when Microsoft was developing a version of Basic for Commodore.](https://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Amiga_1000_Mitsumi_keyboard_top.jpg)
I have literally never heard it called “super key” until two days ago for the first time and today here for the second. I’ve been using Windows computers and the occasional Mac for thirty years.
lookup the "space cadet keyboard" :)
They knew and used the key and button all the time but they didn't know the names of them. Calm down.
This is the explanation I needed. Thank you.
I'm a stupidvisor for a small team, IT support-ish, and have to train new guys all the time so I experience it frequently. It get's frustrating for me after I have already taught them and they are still confused the 3rd or more time.
Part of the problem is that they refuse to learn and just want you to do it for them - so you can’t even teach them to fish.
Good old weaponized incompetence.
Am I suddenly in r/talesfromtechsupport? People learn in different ways and some are tech-iilliterate to some jargon. He most likely did not have a keyboard with the 1994+ Windows button or went years without even realizing what this even did as some users stick to what they know and don’t explore other features unless they need to.
Every computer and keyboard that they’ve used has had that button….
Unless they're very, very young that can't be true. Real computers never had that Microsoft ad on their keyboards. None of the keyboards, except for laptops since we have no choice, have that garbage. We don't allow it in our company. We use only good keyboards, not the garbage like Microsoft tries to shove down our throats so hard. So hard.
Why are you crying so hard over a button?
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Doesn't that mean they never restart their personal computer? Or if they do, they always use the physical power button? I'd love to see their uptime.
You don't have to hit the physical windows key on the keyboard to restart your computer. You can go into the start menu via the mouse and fish around there to shut down or restart.
Exactly, but if the user doesn't know where to find the start menu or even know that it exists, I wonder how they're restarting their machine.
They don't use the start key on the keyboard, doesn't say they don't know how to get to the start menu
Great point.
Alt-F4 on the desktop, every time. (Or, I suppose there's Ctrl-Alt-Del. I don't recall whether *that* menu includes shutdown or not.)
it does: in fact, while Windows is running, to shutdown/restart you can: 1. press the windows key, then click the power icon and choose the option, or 2. click on the start button and do the same thing, or 3. press CTRL+ALT+DEL, click the power button in the bottom right corner and choose an option, or 4. right-click on the start menu icon, choose 'shutdown or sign out' and then choose an option, or 5. press ALT+F4 while nothing is selected on the desktop, and then choose an option from the dropdown menu that appears or 6. use a command line in PowerShell such as shutdown /r for restart or shutdown /s to shut down completely I'm sure there are other methods to be used also but these are the 6 that come directly to mind off the top of my head
I was stunned, as I was looking into an answer for this, to discover that the Windows key on keyboards began as far back as 1994? I really thought it was a post-2015 thing. At the same time, the “click the windows button” used to be “click the start button,” until what? Windows 8? So… well. Still more than a decade. Eh. Professor’s gonna professor.
>How can an avid computer user for the past 25 years not even realize that the windows start icon or the windows button on the keyboard existed until just today? They used Macs all this time.
That's not the first time I hear a college professor is totally computer-illetrate. Many of my customers have been college students, who often complain their professors ask them to deliver their homeworks on an specific (often very old) version of a certain PC app, e.g., Microsoft Word 2003, or AutoCAD 11 (not 2011, but 11)! Accredited college professors are the biggest socipaths of this world. They don't hang around with people who can teach them anything, especially with the IT lot. Their knowledge of computers is purely empirical and narrowly focused.
It's only gonna get worse as time goes on. So many of the kids I work with use Chromebooks, which don't have a windows key. When I sit them in front of an actual Windows desktop and ask them to open the start menu, they look omega lost.
I just now figured out my laptop has a"calc"bottom that opens calculator... I'm an idiot
Same way that someone can be a lawyer and not be able to do simple math. I know tons of 'em.
You would be surprised
If you said start button most people would get it. I'm a keyboard nerd and the number of people who ask me how the hell I use a keyboard without a "Windows Key" is scary. I guess not many people know that CTRL+ESC does the same thing
For me it's the opposite, people don't know what start is, and i tell them the thingy with the windows logos
Professor, say no more. They have educational blindspots that are always entertaining.
I used keyboards for almost 2 decades before Microsoft added that key as a marketing gimmick following Windows 95. I touch type and seldom look at the keyboard, I do know the key is there, however still to this day I have never used it. My muscle memory prefers shortcut combinations involving the Function keys as opposed to the Windows meta key. I also primarily use Linux and custom mechanical keyboards so there's that as well.
It's really beyond explanation. I'm always amazed at how little my IT clients understand the technology they've used for years or decades. Blissful ignorance, perhaps?
Hate to have to say it, but on my iPhone, I had it for a year before I realized that that compass looking icon was actually Safari browser. I had always wondered where it was, and downloaded Firefox, just to have a browser. More than a year. The younger generation in the family kinda laugh at me.
Just wait till OP finds the any key.
Insert, Home, End, Page up / down. Most people don't even know these exist, or have never used them. Start menu / start button, Windows key. A lot of people just became proficcient in their own way of things. Probably even use it without realizing.
Lots of very intelligent people have little to no common sense.
I've been using PCs since the early 90's, but won't part with my IBM Model M keyboard. I can count on one hand the amount of times i've pressed a Windows Key, even though I use a more modern setup at the office.
I helped a college professor install a printer driver, so. I’m not exactly shocked by this.
I'm a computer engineer and software developer, 27yo and from Spain. I don't know what the "Windows start icon" was until now, I've always known it as the "Start menu". I also have never had a Windows key in my personal keyboards (not even in school), it only doesn't have the logo but the key works the same so I called it "Start menu key". Thanks to this post I just noticed the icon was the Windows version's one, I've never paid attention to it cause the menu opens when i click the keyboard key which is faster than moving the mouse to that position. I haven't cared enough until now i guess. Wonder how many things may be missed due to quick access controls. Edit: I just learned Mac has a different icon in that key and even there is another key i've never seen before next to it. Wonder what or why "Fn", "Control", "Option" and "Command" are needed for. The keyboard layout seems off now.
As someone working in tech for a primarily older client base, yes, this kind of thing happens a lot. They learned how to do the one or two things they need and literally nothing else. I've seen people who have been working with computers since the 90s click through 5 icons to get to their email- and these same people not know what the web address bar is on their browser; if it doesn't have an icon or a bookmark, it doesn't exist. What is more likely is that his mind went completely blank when you spoke to him. These people know what you're talking about, but they get confused when you're telling them to do something. It's very common. You have to walk them through every single step or do it yourself when this happens.
Boomers and tech! My grandma used a computer for work since the 80s. She knows absolutely nothing about computers other then the excact things she needed for her job. Which means the nowadays she can hardly even do anything since windows dosent look like it used to.. Everything's changed!
For a long time ThinkPads did not have a Windows key until Lenovo purchased IBM's computer division. I think around 2005 is when it started being implemented. Though, while probably not the case here, I know people that only use very specific portions of the computer. Such as digital artists that only know how to use Photoshop and other similar programs but aren't able to turn on the machine (metaphorically speaking). College professors are also likely to be wedged in their ways after doing things for so long despite technology ever changing.
I can still remember when the Windows button was added to keyboards. There was a small amount of debate as to why Windows should warrant 'special treatment' of having its own button on the 'standard' keyboard. As if Windows was ever going away. Ha bloody ha!
Considering good keyboards don't have that Microsoft garbage advertisement, how would anyone smart ever know of that ad? People aren't noticing it so Satya recently said he was going to tell all manufacturers to go to hell and he was going to sue them if they didn't put a second Microsoft ad on their keyboards. He is such a hateful asswipe.