Bill Gates: Control-Alt-Delete was a mistake

Bill Gates

If you pressed Control-Alt-Delete to log on before reading this, Bill Gates says he's sorry.

The Microsoft founder says the triple-key login should have been made easier, à la Apple's Macs, but that a designer insisted on the more complicated step.

"We could have had a single button. But the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button," Gates said Saturday during a question-and-answer session to launch a Harvard University fund-raising campaign.

His comments have gained attention since a video of his Harvard Q&A was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.

Smiling, Gates tried to follow through on the thought, noting it was a basic security feature. But he eventually surrendered to common sense.

"And so we had ... we programmed at a low level that you had to ... it was a mistake," he said, throwing up his hands to laughter and applause from the crowd.

Read more via CNN