Any key

In computing, "Press any key to continue" (or a similar text) was a historically used prompt to the user when it was necessary to pause processing.

Early computers were typically operated using mechanical teleprinters, which provided a continuous printed record of their output.

However, during the 1970s, these became obsolete and were replaced with visual display units, and text was lost once it scrolled off the top of the screen.

They are therefore no longer required as a means of paginating output, but the graphical equivalent (such as a modal dialog box containing the text "Click OK to continue") is still used for hardware interactions.

Of course, they were quite right.There are reports from as early as 1988 that some users have searched for such a key labelled "any", and called technical support when they have been unable to find it.