# I hate you Ctrl+W!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 14, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637 "2005-01-14T01:05:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/1 "2005-01-14T01:05:18Z")
So there I was typing a lengthy comment on a certain message board . . . . As I approached the end of my message, I happened to start a sentence with a word beginning in “W”. So I held what I believed to be the Shift key, and pressed W – Poof! No more browser window. Lengthy message lost. Turns out I had hit Ctrl+W by mistake. And that’s the second time that’s happened to me _this week!_
Why, for the love of all that’s human, did they make Ctrl+W a shortcut to close the window?! Why, when we already have Alt+F4 for this same purpose, did anyone think I would need another way to instantaneously erase all my work? And one so easy to mistakenly type at that!
And on a serious note, is there any way to turn this god damn feature **off**?
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### Author:  [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/2 "2005-01-14T01:29:09Z")
I hate that. I type on the Dvorak keyboard, and W and V are right next to each other.
Oh, the comments and postings I have lost because I was trying to paste something for a URL and accidentally hit ctrl+w instead of ctrl+v.
My keyboard is labeled qwerty so it’s not like I can just look, I touch type and if you point to a random key I’d have to stop and think about what it is to be able to tell you… maybe I should just paint some white-out on my V key or something.
If there’s a way to turn off that “feature” I also want to know.
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### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/3 "2005-01-14T03:53:33Z")
I _like_ ctrl+w. In Opera it closes the current window but leaves the remainder open. Ctrl+Q is the evil one - same function as ctrl+w and RIGHT freakin’ next to it. :mad?
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### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/4 "2005-01-14T03:55:21Z")
And the ? is right under the :, too. :mad:
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/5 "2005-01-14T04:13:08Z")
Someone asked me how to close a window. I said you press
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### Author:  [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/6 "2005-01-14T05:02:05Z")
While we’re at it, whose bright idea was it to put the key commands for Undo and Save right next to each other? I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost work because I hit “S” when I meant to hit “Z.”
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### Author:  [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/7 "2005-01-14T05:05:02Z")
_saw thread topic_
_wondered what ctrl W did_
_found out empirically_
_shakes fist at Leesha_
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/8 "2005-01-14T05:05:24Z")
Sit down, sonny.
The reason Windows PCs use Control-W to close windows is that once upon a time PC programs had no general conventions for keyboard commands that would be the same in all programs. DOS programs each had their own unique set of commands and the first crop of Windows programs were like that, too.
But the Macintosh had relatively simply keyboard commands that all software developers were supposed to use, and most of them did, so Command-S was Save and Command-O was Open and Command-W was Close Window and Command-X was Cut and Command-C was Copy and Command-V was Past and Command-Z was Undo and Command-P was Print and so forth. They were easy to remember, compared to typical PC keystrokes where Alt-Shift-F7 might be the command to close a certain specific window (whether it was the window you were working in or not) or Ctrl-F8 might be the command for bringing up printing preferences within which you would issue the actual Print command, etc. So Microsoft decided to embrace standards and, in a relatively unusual move, embraced the Mac standards rather than stealing the idea and replacing the specifics with something else. (Mac users everywhere should rejoice at this).
Of course, PC keyboards don’t have the Mac command key. So a decision was made to take the conventional Mac shortcuts and substitute the Control key for the Mac command key. Control-O opens your documents. Control-P prints your documents. You use Control-X, C, V, Z, respectively, to Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo. And yeah, you use Control-W to close a window. (Oddly enough, very few software vendors of PC software had used Control key in conjunction with a single letter key like that, so the new commands hardly ever did anything unexpected if you tried to use them with older software — it just didn’t do the anticipated function).
It’s not our fault that the Control key is located rather close to the Shift key. Such is not the case with the Mac Command key, which is below the letter “X” key and just to the left of the spacebar. Indeed, Microsoft could’ve gone with Alt-letterkey as the default. Maybe Alt-letterkey was already largely in use, unlike Control-letterkey, I don’t know.
Anyway, that’s how it came about and you’re now equipped to answer trivial questions on the subject 🙂
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### Author:  [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/9 "2005-01-14T05:06:13Z")
> [@Taber](#):
>
> _saw thread topic_
>
> _wondered what ctrl W did_
>
> _found out empirically_
>
> _shakes fist at Tim_
uh, Tim started the topic, so it would make more sense as _shakes fist at Tim_
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### Author:  [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/10 "2005-01-14T05:07:34Z")
> [@Taber](#):
>
> _shakes fist at Leesha_
Wha’d I do?
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### Author:  [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/11 "2005-01-14T05:10:10Z")
> [@LeeshaJoy](#):
>
> Wha’d I do?
look at post #9, I caught my error
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### Author:  [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/12 "2005-01-14T05:12:05Z")
Y’know what just occurred to me? Most programs will prompt you to save changes before closing a window, regardless of how it’s closed. Browsers don’t do this because they’re generally for _viewing_ content, rather than creating it.
BUT…how hard would it be for a browser to pop up a window that said something like:
“You have entered text into a form on this page. Are you sure you want to close this window?”
Would save Dopers a lot of grief, I think.
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### Author:  [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/13 "2005-01-14T05:14:40Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> Sit down, sonny.
>
> The reason Windows PCs use Control-W to close windows is that once upon a time PC programs had no general conventions for keyboard commands that would be the same in all programs. DOS programs each had their own unique set of commands and the first crop of Windows programs were like that, too.
>
> But the Macintosh had relatively simply keyboard commands …
>
> Anyway, that’s how it came about and you’re now equipped to answer trivial questions on the subject 🙂
Pity they didn’t also pinch the Command-apple-W thingy to close all windows. I’m getting old; I’d like to save as many keystrokes as I can.
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### Author:  [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/14 "2005-01-14T05:19:08Z")
> [@jabiru](#):
>
> Pity they didn’t also pinch the Command-apple-W thingy to close all windows. I’m getting old; I’d like to save as many keystrokes as I can.
FYI, “command” and “apple” are the same key. They changed the key name to “apple” about the same time that Mac keyboards started coming with a Control key.
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### Author:  [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/15 "2005-01-14T05:21:55Z")
OK, it’s been a long time. It must’ve been Option-apple-W. But there were a command which closed all open windows. I miss it. ☹
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/16 "2005-01-14T05:39:48Z")
Of course, nowadays, they could go back to using what is essentially what Apple has been doing the whole time, thanks to the Windows key.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-ctrl-w/284637/17 "2005-01-14T05:51:30Z")
And as extra salt in the OP’s wounds, with MacOS X 10.3 you can arbitrarily remap any menu command in any program to almost any keystroke combination you want. If you want (say) Safari to close windows with Apple-Shift-Control-W, for instance, you can just use the Keyboard preferences and set up the mapping in 30 seconds.
(Not that I ever accidentally close a browser window by acci