Latest news with #BlueScreenofDeath
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
Windows' infamous 'blue screen of death' will soon turn black
Nearly every Windows user has had a run in with the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death' at some point in their computing life. Now, after more than 40-years of being set against a very recognizable blue, the updated error message will soon be displayed across a black background. The changes to the notorious error screen come as part of broader efforts by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of the Windows operating system in the wake of last year's CrowdStrike incident, which crashed millions of Windows machines worldwide. 'Now it's easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster,' Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wrote in an announcement. As part of that effort, Microsoft says it's 'streamlining' what users experience when encountering 'unexpected restarts' that cause disruptions. And that means a makeover to the infamous error screen. Beyond the now-black background, Windows' new 'screen of death' has a slightly shorter message. It's also no longer accompanied by a frowning face — and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process. Microsoft says this 'simplified' user interface for unexpected restarts will be available later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices. And for PCs that may not restart successfully, Microsoft also said it's adding a 'quick machine recovery' mechanism. The will be particularly useful for during a widespread outage, the tech giant noted, as Microsoft 'can broadly deploy targeted remediations' and automate fixes with this new mechanism 'without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.' Microsoft said this quick machine recovery will also be 'generally available' later this summer on Window 11 — with additional capabilities set to launch later in the year. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Qatar Tribune
5 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Microsoft replaces ‘blue screen of death' with sleek black version
Agencies Nearly every Windows user has had a run-in with the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death' at some point in their computing life. Now, after more than 40 years of being set against a very recognizable blue, the updated error message will soon be displayed across a black background. The changes to the notorious error screen come as part of broader efforts by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of the Windows operating system in the wake of last year's CrowdStrike incident, which crashed millions of Windows machines worldwide. 'Now it's easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster,' Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wrote in a Wednesday announcement. As part of that effort, Microsoft says it's 'streamlining' what users experience when encountering 'unexpected restarts' that cause disruptions. And that means a makeover to the infamous error screen. Beyond the now-black background, Windows' new 'screen of death' has a slightly shorter message. It's also no longer accompanied by a frowning face - and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process. Microsoft says this 'simplified' user interface for unexpected restarts will be available later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices. And for PCs that may not restart successfully, Microsoft on Wednesday also said it's adding a 'quick machine recovery' mechanism. The will be particularly useful for during a widespread outage, the tech giant noted, as Microsoft 'can broadly deploy targeted remediations' and automate fixes with this new mechanism 'without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.' Microsoft said this quick machine recovery will also be 'generally available' later this summer on Window 11 - with additional capabilities set to launch later in the year.
Arab Times
16 hours ago
- Arab Times
Windows' infamous 'blue screen of death' will soon turn black
NEW YORK, June 28, (AP): Nearly every Windows user has had a run-in with the infamous "Blue Screen of Death' at some point in their computing life. Now, after more than 40 years of being set against a very recognizable blue, the updated error message will soon be displayed across a black background. The changes to the notorious error screen come as part of broader efforts by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of the Windows operating system in the wake of last year's CrowdStrike incident, which crashed millions of Windows machines worldwide. "Now it's easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster,' Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wrote in a Wednesday announcement. As part of that effort, Microsoft says it's "streamlining' what users experience when encountering "unexpected restarts' that cause disruptions. And that means a makeover to the infamous error screen. Beyond the now-black background, Windows' new "screen of death' has a slightly shorter message. It's also no longer accompanied by a frowning face - and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process. Microsoft says this "simplified' user interface for unexpected restarts will be available later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices. And for PCs that may not restart successfully, Microsoft on Wednesday also said it's adding a "quick machine recovery' mechanism. The will be particularly useful for during a widespread outage, the tech giant noted, as Microsoft "can broadly deploy targeted remediations' and automate fixes with this new mechanism "without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.' Microsoft said this quick machine recovery will also be "generally available' later this summer on Window 11 - with additional capabilities set to launch later in the year.
Ammon
18 hours ago
- Ammon
Windows is getting rid of the Blue Screen of Death after 40 years
Ammon News - The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has held strong in Windows for nearly 40 years, but that's about to change. Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it was overhauling its BSOD error message in Windows 11, and the company has now confirmed that it will soon be known as the Black Screen of Death. The new design drops the traditional blue color, frowning face, and QR code in favor of a simplified black screen. The simplified BSOD looks a lot more like the black screen you'd see during a Windows update. But it will list the stop code and faulty system driver that you wouldn't always see during a crash dump. IT admins shouldn't need to pull crash dumps off PCs and analyze them with tools like WinDbg just to find out what could be causing issues. 'This is really an attempt on clarity and providing better information and allowing us and customers to really get to what the core of the issue is so we can fix it faster,' says David Weston, vice president of enterprise and OS security at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. 'Part of it just cleaner information on what exactly went wrong, where it's Windows versus a component.' Microsoft says it will roll out this new BSOD design in an update to Windows 11 'later this summer,' alongside its new Quick Machine Recovery feature, which is designed to quickly restore machines that can't boot. The changes to the BSOD are part of a broader effort by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of Windows in the wake of last year's CrowdStrike incident, which left millions of Windows machines booting to a BSOD. The Verge
WIRED
a day ago
- WIRED
So Long, Blue Screen of Death. Amazingly, You'll Be Missed
Jun 27, 2025 1:37 PM After a long and storied history, the BSOD is being replaced. WIRED takes a trip down memory lane to wave goodbye to the iconic screen we all love to hate. A blue Windows error message is shown on a laptop. Photograph:For decades, the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD to its friends, has instilled a mix of panic, dread, exasperation, and rage across countless Windows users. But now, Microsoft is getting ready to retire it. According to a Microsoft blog post, the Windows 11 crash screen—or, as the company puts it, 'unexpected restart screen'—will soon adopt a distinctly more minimalist vibe. Along with scrapping the blue (in favor of a perhaps even more dread-inducing black), the revamp also ditches the sad face emoji and QR code. All that remains is a single ominous sentence—'Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart'—along with a stop code and details of the errant driver that contributed to your PC's misfortune. A Black Screen of Death is something Microsoft has teased before. But why now? Why no more blue? And where did the Blue Screen of Death come from in the first place? Out of the Blue: Before the BSOD To be clear, there was no grand plan behind the Blue Screen of Death. Its origin story is a patchwork of coincidences and iteration. Even the term itself likely evolved organically, perhaps derived from 'Black Screen of Death,' used by InfoWorld's Robert X. Cringely while writing about a bug that affected networked PCs running Windows 3.1. That screen, you'll note, wasn't even blue. Early versions of Windows did have blue screens, but they weren't really about death. Windows 1 (1985) would spew white-on-blue garbage when confronted with the wrong version of DOS during boot. Windows 3.1 (1992) used the same scheme for important system messages that required user input and for the rudimentary task manager that let you kill unruly apps or reboot. At most, this was Blue Screen of Mild Dilemma territory. When things went really bad, you'd get dumped back into DOS. Which also wasn't blue. Windows 95 moved things on a bit by not kicking you back to DOS when it imploded. But its system error screens still gave you the option to limp along, even if Windows by then was one wobble from collapse. A Blue Screen of Potentially Delayed Death, then. But BSOPDD never caught on as an acronym because it's far too silly . Blue-Sky Thinking: Evolution of the BSOD The real BSOD, the one burned into tech lore, arguably arrived with Windows NT 3.1 (1993). When the system hit a critical error, it threw up a wall of white text on a blue background, which might help engineers diagnose an issue—or make the average user stare at it and weep. So why blue? Years ago, former Microsoft architect John Vert explained that the color scheme matched his workstation boot screen and text editor. And when Windows crashed, the display adapter was forced into text mode with a basic color palette. Vert added that he was unaware of other Windows blue screens. In short, then, he chose what he knew and liked. Yet those arbitrary decisions stuck for nearly two decades, aside from minor tweaks to simplify the output to make it a little less terrifying. Significant changes arrived with Windows 8 (2012), which was the first real attempt to make the crash screen user-friendly. But this being Microsoft, that effort included a huge, obnoxious, almost sarcastic sad-face emoji above text that read, 'Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart.' At least the shade of blue was nicer. Later, Windows 10 (2016) added a QR code, so that rather than scrawl down error messages, you could use your phone to quickly jump to a support page. (And then probably reboot anyway, when you realized it wasn't any help.) Then came Windows 11 (2021), which briefly made the dramatic visual change of turning the BSOD black, matching the system's login and shutdown screens. That was subsequently reverted, perhaps in response to the anguished cries of confused users and support desk engineers alike. So, what's different this time? Back in Black: Why Microsoft Is Ditching the Blue In 2024, a botched CrowdStrike update rendered countless PCs unusable, taking down airlines, railways, banks, TV stations, and more. What had they in common? All proudly displayed the Blue Screen of Death. It's not hard to imagine Microsoft wanting to distance itself from that imagery by making its crash screen less iconic, less memorable, less memeable , and less noticeable. Not that Microsoft would ever say that. Officially, the new crash screen is part of the broader Windows Resiliency Initiative, designed to, well, make Windows more resilient. And the redesign specifically is all about clarity and simplicity. According to David Weston, Microsoft Vice President, Enterprise and OS Security, it 'improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed.' There's arguably an added bonus, too: removing all distinct visuals from the Windows crash screen gives Apple one less thing to poke fun at. So no more sneakily adding BSOD colors and :( to macOS PC icons. Sad face indeed. Feeling Blue: Microsoft Might Regret the Change But before WIRED suggests black looks good on everyone, including the Windows Lock Screen, let's ask: Should Microsoft think again, as it did in 2021? A whistle-stop tour of color theory books will tell you blue is widely regarded as positive, right across cultures. It's the most favored hue and associated with calmness, serenity, and competence. It's the sky and the sea—the 'everything's probably fine' shade. By contrast, black is the absence of color. Cold. Ominous. The void. More importantly, the Blue Screen of Death is recognizable . You can spot it across the room and instantly know something has gone very wrong. A black crash screen, though, risks blending in with update screens. And something you definitely don't want to do is have users in any way confuse the two. As a commenter WIRED spotted put it, 'You wouldn't change the colors of road signs, so why do that to the computer equivalent?' Whatever the reason—ditching a negative image, unifying design, simplifying an experience, or just change for the sake of it—the Blue Screen of Death is on borrowed time. Still, the BSOD acronym will surely live on, because there's no chance Microsoft's 'unexpected restart screen' term will stick. That's not a name; it's a euphemism. It'll always be a Screen of Death to WIRED, whatever its hue, black or blue. The BSOD is dead. Long live the BSOD.
