在電腦和互聯網無處不在的現代社會，工作時間偶爾開小差看個電影啊，玩個小游戲啊之類的事情都是不可防止的。可如果正玩的起勁兒，老板卻出目前不遠處，這可如何好呢？只見人家不慌不忙手指輕點下鍵盤，屏幕立刻變成工作界面，難道那個鍵就是boss key？

A boss key is a special keyboard shortcut^{1 used in computer games or other programs to quickly hide the program and possibly display a special screen that appears to be a normal productivity program.}

Boss key是電腦游戲中用的一個特殊的快捷鍵，用來迅速隱藏游戲界面并顯示正常工作程序的一個特殊界面。

This was a fairly common feature in early computer games for personal computers, when most boss keys were used to show dummy^{2 DOS prompts. The use has faded somewhat as modern multitasking operating systems have evolved.}

老板鍵在早期的電腦游戲中非常容易見到，多數都是用來顯示虛擬的DOS提示框。伴隨后來多任務操作系統的進步，老板鍵的用法也日漸淡出。