[asomiv]

If winlogon runs in the same security context and the same desktop as explorer.exe then a key logger will be able to intercept all logins, and a screenshotter will be able to take screenshots of your login screen. Clearly you don't want that to be possible.

Or are you saying that they never should have made Ctrl-Alt-Del do anything else but starting the task manager?

[ttt_]

>> Or are you saying that they never should have made Ctrl-Alt-Del do anything else but starting the task manager?

That's what I'm saying. Not that they shouldn't have made it do anything else per se. But that by doing so, the other features caused a negative effect on the main feature.

Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't have anything to do with logon or accounts or security, just task manager. Winlogon stuff should have had a different shortcut altogether, maybe Win-Alt-Del.

[andrewf]

Wikipedia has more details, but essentially, in the Windows NT line bringing up all the security options has always been what Ctrl-Alt-Del does, with the task manager sometimes being presented as an option. Since about 1993.

Jumping straight to the task manager was something that happened under limited circumstances (fast user switching enabled, computer unattached to a domain) in Windows XP only.