While recently talking someone through a tricky installation over the phone, the age-old "which key is the Any key anyhow?" joke came up. While not many of us consciously think about which key is the "Any" key, (as in "press any key to continue"), which key on the keyboard you strike actually can make a difference, and some keys make better Any keys than others.
First you have the issue of the Shift key as Any key. Despite asking you to hit Any key, many install routines ignore the Shift key entirely.
TSE = Technical Support Engineer
You = You
TSE: "What does the screen say?"
You: "It says 'press any key to continue.'"
TSE: "Do that."
You: "I did. Nothing happened."
And off you and a highly-trained telephone support engineer go down a rabbit trail trying to figure out what went wrong. Nothing went wrong, the Shift key just did not make a good Any key. More insidious is the Enter key. This key will definitely get the install program's attention, but it too is fraught with peril.
For example, a frustrated user presses the Enter key when the screen says to press any key to continue, and holds the key down for a nanosecond too long, thereby sending not one but several Enter keystrokes to the computer. The first keystroke does continue the installation program, but the second Enter keystroke accepts the next default choice and so does the third, and with a brief screen flash you're someplace in the program you may not want to be.
So what is the best Any key? It's our experience that the Spacebar makes the best Any key, although Spacebar is also used to select check boxes and option buttons inside dialog boxes. The "Z" alphabet key is a good second choice since the chance of it doing more than advancing the installation to the next screen is remote.
