Latest news with #ITOutage
Entrepreneur
4 days ago
- Entrepreneur
Microsoft's 'Blue Screen of Death' Is Changing to Black
Microsoft is changing the infamous blue screen — that you never want to see. Microsoft outlined a major change to its "Windows Resiliency Initiative" this week in an effort to make the company's products "more secure and resilient" after last year's CrowdStrike outage. In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft said it is "streamlining the unexpected restart experience" and adding "quick machine recovery, a recovery mechanism for PCs that cannot restart successfully." But the big change people will notice right away (well, hoping you never have to see it) is that the color of the "blue screen of death," which has been around for 40 years, will now be black. Related: The Largest IT Outage in History Took Place on Friday Due to a Crowdstrike Update. Here's How the CEO Is Responding. Or, as TechCrunch notes, the blue screen of death will now be the "black screen of death." The new Windows 11 unexpected restart screen (Courtesy: Microsoft) "This change is part of a larger, continued effort to reduce disruption in the event of an unexpected restart," Microsoft wrote in the blog post. "We're introducing a simplified user interface (UI) that pairs with the shortened experience." Microsoft says the blue to black switch, or "updated UI," helps to improve readability and "aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed." Blue digital boards are seen due to the global communications outage caused by CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity services to US technology company Microsoft, in Times Square in New York City, on July 19, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images) The black screens will certainly stand out less if there's ever another major issue. The CrowdStrike outage affected more than 8.5 million Windows devices (and all of the businesses that use them, from airlines to sports stadiums), which led to a spate of viral images showing the "blue screen of death" on huge screens from stock exchanges to Times Square. Related: Read the Memo from CrowdStrike Explaining How Its Update Broke the World's Computers
Times of Oman
4 days ago
- Times of Oman
Microsoft shuts down iconic 'Blue Screen of Death'
Microsoft is killing its infamous "Blue Screen of Death" after over four decades. The notorious error message will soon be set against a black background. The technology giant made the announcement in a blog post on Thursday as it outlined wider measures to improve the resilience of the Windows operating system. "Now it's easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster," the company wrote. The efforts by Microsoft come in light of the 2024 Crowdstike incident which led to a mammoth IT outage, crashing millions of Windows systems across the globe. What's new? The "Blue Screen of Death" or Blue Screen error was displayed if a serious problem caused Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly to prevent data loss. The company said it is "streamlining" what users experience when confronted with "unexpected restarts" that lead to disruptions. The steps entail revamping the error screen that greeted users — often frustratingly so — for more than 40 years. The new error message has a much more condensed text displayed across a black backdrop. "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart," it will read, according to an image shared by Microsoft in its blog. The error message is no longer accompanied by a sad face icon and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process. The software company said that this "simplified" user interface for unexpected restarts will be available from later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices.
Reuters
7 days ago
- Reuters
Columbia University reports IT outage, notifies authorities
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Columbia University said its IT systems experienced an outage that started on Tuesday morning, adding it was probing the incident and had notified law enforcement. There was no indication of any data being compromised, said a spokesperson for the New York-based university. "This morning, Columbia University IT systems experienced an outage affecting systems on our Morningside campus. Our IT team has been working to restore services as quickly as possible, and we have notified law enforcement," the university spokesperson said. "At this time, no clinical operations at CUIMC have been impacted," the spokesperson said, referring to the Columbia University Irving Medical Center which is a major constituent of the Morningside campus near Central Park. Columbia University's student newspaper, The Columbia Spectator, reported that the hours-long outage has impacted the university's online platforms. It affected Columbia's UNI authentication service, which students use to log into their university accounts, the newspaper reported. "We are experiencing widespread system outages," the university's website noted late on Tuesday.
