The Esc key is a key labele Esc or Escape that is used to generate the ASCII Escape character (Control-[, ASCII code 27 in decimal), the character code traditionally used to initiate an escape sequence. As most computer users no longer are concerned with the details of controlling their computer's peripherals, the task for which the escape sequences were originally designed, the escape key was appropriated by application programmers, most often to mean Stop. This use continues today in Microsoft Windows's use of escape as a shortcut in dialog boxes for No, Quit, Exit, Cancel, or Abort.