Someone tell me what this SCROLL LOCK key does..

[GoldenBear]

I've seen this key for over a decade now, and I have no friggin idea what it means!!

It doesn't seem to lock SCROLLING or anything, AHH!

 

[Vikaden]

I think it was used for DOS, im not really sure though.

 

[AndyHui]

It used to be for holding the display on screens.....stuff in DOS which extended for more than one screen would simply fly past. You could hit scroll lock and it would stop....or at least, that's what I remember doing.

 

[konichiwa]

It was so you could limit the amount of info that DOS would display on one command. And then you'd have to press a key to make it continue...the buffer was only so big, so if stuff just flew by you'd miss it and you wouldn't be able to find it again because it got deleted in the buffer.

 

[GoldenBear]

Are you guys not referring to the pause button?

 

[Windogg]

Ahhh... youngins nowadays.

Scroll Lock goes back to the pre GUI days to prevent screens from scrolling by you.

 

[puffpio]

yeah that's what pause did


scroll lock would keep the cursor at the current position while you scrolled around in a document..i think

 

[GoldenBear]

Hmm, how would I put it to use TODAY?

 

[yakko]

<< Hmm, how would I put it to use TODAY? >>

When one of your other keys wears out you could replace it with that one.

 

[Delusion2001]

haha. been wondering taht myself

 

[konichiwa]

<< Hmm, how would I put it to use TODAY? >>

Take it out, throw it around with your friends, have a jolly time with your very own scroll lock key!

...what do you think you can do with it? Leave it in your keyboard and think of it as a novelty?

 

[GoldenBear]

Er, no...I want to actually use it as in, you know, by using it for what it's designed for?

Oh well..

 

[beer]

LOL GB!!!!!!

 

[Windogg]

Funny how someone who likes watching big beefy sweaty men grapple with each other in spandex and makeup calls others gay?

 

[Vikaden]

haha

 

[GoldenBear]

<< Funny how someone who likes watching big beefy sweaty men grapple with each other in spandex and makeup calls others gay? >>

1) I see no humor in it.
2) How is that a question?
3) Click PROVE ME WRONG!

 

[tim0thy]

Goldenbear, haha..

Scroll Lock is used like this.
You do a type filename.foo
Hit scroll Lock
use Up and down to look at it

you can use it with other commands like dir and what not, yea yea, i know, why not just pipe it to more, well, they didn't have that option in DOS 2.x, yes, i used that with my IBM PCjr when i was like 7.

 

[pdiddy]

to lock scrolls

 

[virusag13]

I learned that when all I had was a 8088 with just dos on it. It had dig dug, striker, wheel of fortune and then worthless crap on it.

 

[axelfox]

Whats DOS? J/k

 

[bonk102]

so does it do anything nowadays?

 

[jhu]

you think you guys are smart? wtf does the sysrq key do? i don't know anyone who's even touched that thing in the past 20 years.

 

[Rakkis]

JHU:
You can take a nice bitmapped screen shot in windows

 

[AndyHui]

Nowadays you can still use it in Excel to scroll around the spreadsheet using the arrow keys, while holding the cursor in the active cell. Normally when you hit an arrow key, not only would the spreadsheet scroll, but it would also change which cell you are working on. Scroll lock changes this behaviour to just scroll around the spreadsheet.