Talk:Any key

Perspective
Between the edit by DavidWBrooks and myself, I can see where there could be a difference between the entry written from two perspectives.

For example, noting that the "any key" is not a real key on the keyboard would be of real use to a new computer user looking it up in the Wikipedia. The fact that it is also a joke deserves it's own section, perhaps.

I think the article should be expanded to include both general information for someone just looking it up, and a separate section about how it has come to become a joke referring to newbies. In my opinion, the goal of the article should be to elucidate rather than make fun of a user who may have honestly needed a reference article.

Any dicussion on the topic would be welcome.

-Abqwildcat 20:36, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * How often does the "any key" phrase come up these days? Not very often, because most OSes use mice and it's almost always something like "click OK to continue" or "click anywhere". So I think this is a moot point.12.103.251.203 20:13, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

OK, I merged based on this discussion. I'm new here, so the result might deserve a second look. Jimsg 14:43, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

In the Amiga Tetris clone Defektris, the first screen of the playing instructions says "Press just about anything for the next page". I became interested in this and tried it out. The result is that there is only one thing you can press that does not show you the next page: the right mouse button. Every key on the keyboard (even the modifier keys), the left mouse button, and the joystick fire button all work. J I P | Talk 13:19, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Yep
I did a little bit of cleanup of this article and sort of improved the prose. Any ideas on how to expand? &mdash; Ilyan  e  p  (Talk)  22:34, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

"Typically confused"?
The text says, "New users were typically confused by this reference to the 'Any Key' and began wondering where the 'any' key was on the keyboard. The confusion is much less common now as some computer help systems have added explicit explanations of this problem." It makes it sound like almost everyone was confused by "press any key", when in reality, I would guess that the vast majority of people were not confused by this. Once you have a million computer users there might have been a few thousand who were confused (which is enough to justify a help system entry) but it shouldn't be so overstated. Wonderstruck 04:57, 3 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Agreed, the article makes it sound like there was widespread confusion. I've been working on computers since the early 80s and have never personally known anyone who actually looked for the "any key".  It appears to me that Wikipedia is, in this case, vectoring an unsubstantiated urban legend. SnappingTurtle 01:14, 1 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Know how I can tell you've never worked in tech support? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.61.164.169 (talk) 06:47, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * ☢ 2A02:587:C490:7400:716D:3C3F:6180:2B09 (talk) 12:36, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Usage on Samsung remotes
Some Samsung DVD remotes have a key called Any Key which opens a menu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.179.85.3 (talk • contribs) 14:18, 27 December 2006

Additional joke
"Hi, my name is Annie Key. Please don't hit me!" -- I don't know if this belongs in the article, but I think it's funny, which probably says a lot about me, but what the heck. :) --195.56.53.118 21:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I remember that as a tagline on various Fidonet-style BBS messages. Often, software designed to allow BBS messages to be composed offline would allow the user to automatically add a silly one-liner to the end of each message sent. Mid 1990's at the latest, I'd think.


 * As for "On some models, if the keyboard is unplugged, the command prompt that appears is "Keyboard not detected. Press any key to continue."? Dunno about that one, usually the 'you have no keyboard' message is generated by the BIOS on power-up self test as "Keyboard error. Press F1 to continue." (the tagline joke for this being "Think F1 to continue...") --66.102.80.239 08:21, 9 October 2007 (UTC)


 * LOL ROTFL XD ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 10:40, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Any key is not a valid term... Ctrl is being ignored always
Well... in most cases. As I had experienced in most of the DOS and *NIX versions, in most cases, typical applications ignore a Ctrl keystroke for the Any-Key. So don't think you could just jump out of your confusion, having no more seeds for your random key generator and choose the very first lower-left key hoping for success - you will fail ;-) --Lazer erazer 22:52, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
 * whoops it was already in the article *better read it entirely first* ^^ --Lazer erazer 22:56, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

The Any Key
Wouldn't it be "Press the Any Key" if it were one specific key? Qorilla (talk) 23:15, 7 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, which is why most users probably weren't confused about whether there was an "Any Key". Derekristow (talk) 17:33, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

not all keys work
not all of the keys on the keyboard work when prompted for the 'any key' imput, notably the 'Esc' cey, testing should be done and non working keys stated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.130.185.74 (talk) 16:45, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * A cool key that doesn't also work for the any key is the FN key, dunno why but messing around on the title screen of Danganronpa v3 I pressed fn and it just didn't register, unlike all the other keys including the Windows key. 2600:6C54:4280:1C7E:BCC4:BA7:CB15:F23D (talk) 17:17, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Press a key to continue
Should probably be noted that some software switched to "press a key to continue", for the people who don't know what the term "any" means. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.223.89.108 (talk) 01:11, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Not historical?
Why is the any key being regarded as historical? As far as I can tell it's still used, for example in computer game splash screens 94.197.159.249 (talk) 11:49, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Computer games
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Dying Light 2, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Lego Marvel Superheroes... etc. All feature a "press any key" prompt at the start. It's not historical, it's still common. 94.197.159.249 (talk) 11:55, 18 May 2022 (UTC)