The Blue Screen of Death Is Dead

The emblematic blue screen of Microsoft’s death (BSOD) died after 40 years. Riper on the most panicked screen than a Windows user may meet. Now prepare to fear the black screen of death.

In a blog post on her website today, the company revealed that she was ready to go online with an error screen redesign that she has been tested since March. In an update of all Windows 11 devices, a 24 -hour version to come “later this summer”, the BSOD will finally be out of its misery.

This is probably a soft-maker moment for Windows users, who will undoubtedly have mixed feelings on the spell of the warning. Despite his worrying name, obtaining a BSOD has not always been as serious as it seemed – a simple crash could trigger it, and the restart could easily repair it. It could be worse than that too, but in many cases, the old BSOD has simply added a little personality to the most boring interruptions to your workflow. Especially in recent years, when you would see an emoticon frowning the side eyebrows next to your error message.

But sometimes, personality is not what you need, especially when you are already stressed by your computer to meet a serious error. Companies and travelers have been bombed with a particularly insoluble death screen during last year’s crowdsstrike breakdown, it is logical that Microsoft wants to move away from any association with it.

Credit: Microsoft

Enter the new black death screen. By more resembling other Windows error messages, it is a simple black screen which says, in white text, that “your device has encountered a problem and must restart”. Below, a progress counter, in parallel with your error code and which process triggered it.

“The updated user interface improves readability and aligns better with the design principles of Windows 11,” said Microsoft vice-president of the David Weston operating system in today’s blog post.

I will agree that it is undoubtedly a little less disturbing than the current BSOD, which spends a lot of screen space on this great emoticon frowning, and used to say “your PC encountered a problem that he could not manage” before nothing else. Personally, I think that the new approach could better reflect most of the situations that could trigger a BSOD – they are generally not as frightening as they seem. In addition, the old error screen did not really indicate you which process failed, so seeing that on its replacement is a good bonus (it would sometimes display a QR code, but I could not often scan before my computer restarts).

However, part of me will miss the old blue screen of death, in the same way that the red ring of death missed my first Xbox 360. Stockholm syndrome, I suppose?

In any case, Microsoft says that when it releases the new black death screen (not the official name of the error message, but not either “blue screen of death”), it will also publish a new fast recovery feature, which will help you access PCs which cannot restart normally. In other words, the company is trying to make sure that we will not get another crowdsstrike incident anytime soon. And if we do it, it will make us feel a little less blue.