SimonLeo

I am looking at my keyboard and there is this button on it: Scroll lock.

It has been there for ages. I think it was there when I used DOS even.

However, I have never in my life used the Scroll Lock button for anything.

Is there anyone that has/does? And why? What does it actually do?

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Brianna Ort

It turns on the indicator light next to the one for Caps Lock.

Mr Twine

I think I used it for flying straight in Aion...

Brianna Ort

But seriously, here's the long version.

Scroll lock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SimonLeo

oh, yeah. I do use it afterall then.

I use that to check if my computer is stuck or just taking a loooong time to do something.
If the light doesn't go on and off, you can just turn the comp. off because it's not gonne be doing anything anytime soon.

SimonLeo

Damn wikipedia.

I was aiming for a lengthy discussion on the use of this button and the purpose of it.

Taco Rubio

I use it a lot in excel, when i'm trying to edit things or not edit things. it's a 'turn off the arrow buttons' button, to me.

I'm pretty interested in what the sysrq button is, if anyone knows.

SimonLeo

SysRq also says PrtScrn (Print Screen) on my keyboard.

And I am going to test that use of the scoll lock button. Might be handy.

Mad Mouse

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For me SysRq is labeled "PrtSrc/SysRq", which is print screen. Captures your whole screen image to clipboard. I use it every day.

What the SysRq does, if it is a secondary function of the button, I don't know what it does or how to trigger it's alternate use.

Now Pause/Break, I have no idea what that key does.

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SimonLeo

I just tested it in Excel. That might be handy indeed.

PrtScrn or Sys Rq is handy for taking a quick screenshot.
You can paste the image anywhere with Ctrl V.

SimonLeo

In my DOS period it would actually pause a program.
Handy for cheating in games.

I used it also a lot when I was programming in QuickBasic. For testing a program.

Control Break would stop QuickBasic from executing the program (very handy if you have it stuck in an infinite loop, which happened a lot to me).

Taco Rubio

print screen button lets you copy your screen, to paste into paint, i think if remember right that using ctrl or shift or both, you can copy either the active window or the whole screen, and then I paste it into paint and mail off hilarious discussions to cristiano.

i still don't know what sysrq is.

Void

pause/break is mostly a DOS key, but you can use it to pause boot up to see the messages from POST, which is especially helpful if you have a monitor that auto changes resolution and blanks between changes, or has an auto energy save move that is slow to come back from "no signal" (or just if your POST screen flies by too fast). It's also used by windows in combination with the windows function key to bring up the system properties page. I still use it when I drop to command line, or when something funky shows up in POST.

sysReq is another interrupt key, that was mostly used to safely halt low level programs so that you could input other information outside of the current program, kinda like an old school alt+tab, but is effectively unnecessary since the age of multi-tasking OS's of more than 16bits. I know literally nothing you can run modernly that actually requires the key, and it's ignored by the bios and the OS.

all three are technically interrupt keys in their original form, which is why they are grouped together

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Cerise

SysRq is a way to get thru to a Linux kernel if you have made too many experiments and stuffed up the GUI somehow. Hold down alt+sysrq then type reisub (very slowly, a second or two pause between letters) to do an orderly restart without a resort to the power switch. The cheat sheet for the SysRq codes is here. That is a good thing to print out, you won't be able to look it up when you really need it.

Void

... and I'm busted for not running a recent linux kernel =P