[2] Premiering on October 23, 2002, the comic's focus has gradually shifted away from single strip gags towards longer story arcs and greater continuity through the use of video game references.

Ctrl+Alt+Del has provided Buckley with enough income to make a living, placing Ctrl+Alt+Del in a small group of web comics that receive full-time devotion from their artist.

[3] Beginning June 2008, a number of smaller, humor-themed batch-released strips entitled "CAD Sillies" began running on the news feeds, although they were soon given their own section on the site.

[2] Together with Ethan's girlfriend, now wife, Lilah, the three engage in turmoil which the comic storyline conveys through independent gaming-related puns by utilizing well-known game titles, consoles and pop culture references.

For a monthly or yearly fee, fans were able to access exclusive "members only" content such as wallpapers, strips and Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series, which made its debut in February 2006.

Buckley noted that he was approached by other companies before coming into contact with Blind Ferret Entertainment, but he believed that they had the most appropriate combination of skills and experience to make the animated series a reality.

[28] Shaula Clark of The Boston Phoenix described Buckley as a polarizing figure who created a devoted fanbase for his webcomic while receiving criticism from peers such as Yahtzee and the writers of Penny Arcade.

She goes on to attempt to determine why Ctrl+Alt+Del receives the amount of criticism that it has, believing that Buckley's attempt to take a webcomic originally created to showcase strips focusing on Warcraft-related jokes and "the monkey-cheese-ninja random wackiness of manchild main character Ethan" in a new direction by adding "excruciatingly slow, melodramatic, ham-handed plot arcs" helped lead to the negative feedback that the strip has received.

[30] Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Levi Buchanan compared Ctrl+Alt+Del to Penny Arcade, describing both as webcomics that take advantage of the lack of censorship on the web by using expletives when they are appropriate, and if they serve the story.

[33] In 2007, the Knoxville News-Sentinel called Ctrl+Alt+Del a "healthy dose of Web-comic-meets-videogame-playing-geek", describing its drawing style as "cartoonish" and its humor as one that "hilariously lampoons all things gaming through the lives of amateur artist Ethan, programmer Lucas and professional gamer Lilah".

[34] Video game journalist Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation has criticized Ctrl+Alt+Del on several occasions for excessive use of dialogue and slow comic pacing, among other reasons.

[38] In an interview with Joystiq on August 29, 2008, when asked about the comic, Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade said that "Tim Buckley is the antichrist, and I think [that] storyline was the first horseman of the Apocalypse", while Mike Krahulik stated "I think he's an art criminal.