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The Scroll Lock key is a remnant from the original IBM PC keyboard. In the original design, Scroll Lock was intended to modify the behavior of the arrow keys. When the scroll lock mode was on, the arrow keys would scroll the contents of a text window. In this sense, Scroll Lock serves a similar purpose to Num Lock and Caps Lock: it enables a secondary function of a group of keys. Today, this particular use of Scroll Lock is rare. (One modern program that does use this behavior is Microsoft Excel.) In modern GUI environments, scrolling is usually accomplished using other means such as scrollbars.

In Linux command line sessions, the Scroll Lock key is used to pause screen output. This behavior emulates the Hold Screen key or similar flow control mechanisms on computer terminals. Because of this emulation, the term scroll lock is sometimes used to generically refer to a screen pausing behavior. This usage could potentially cause confusion since screen pausing behavior is not intrinsically a part of the Scroll Lock key. In DOS, the Pause key pauses the screen output.

In FreeBSD and other BSD descendants Scroll Lock still functions similarly to IBM's original design.

See also SysRqThere is a key labeled SysRq on keyboards for PCs that no longer has a standard use. The BIOS keyboard routines simply ignore it; therefore so do the DOS input routines as well as the keyboard routines in libraries supplied with many high-level languages., break keyThe break key is a special key on computer keyboards that no longer has a well-defined purpose. Its origins go back to telegraph practices. A standard telegraph key has a built-in knife switch that can be used to short the keys contacts. When the key was, scroll.