Wow! What a trip down memory lane, I actually remember figuring this one out when I was.. dating myself here[1], about 7 years old, I really wanted to play my Thinking Things Collection 3.[2]

When I inevitably got caught I remember my dad let me have my own user, but put some sort of further time-restriction software on the PC, no idea what it was, but I figured out that if I timed Ctrl-Alt-Delete at just the right time during the start cycle, I could, if I worked fast enough, end the process before it locked me out of login. XD

Oh to be a 90s kid.

[1] to be fair though we didn't update Windows immediately on release and never had '98.

[2]https://www.myabandonware.com/game/thinkin-things-collection...