After making the official annoucement a couple weeks back, Microsoft is finally beginning to get rid of its Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error message. The sad face, blue screen and QR code are now making way for a simplified black screen that will simply show users that there device has run into a problem.
The Black Screen of Death error message is now rolling out with Windows 11 Release Preview, suggesting that it should come to all Windows 11 users via an update in the coming weeks.
While the inherent reason behind the change to new error message is apparent, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be looking to publicly acknowledge so. The company attributes the change as a move towards “simplified user interface (UI)” and “providing better information” to users.
“The updated UI improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed.” Microsoft added in a blogpost.
After the CrowdStrike outage last year, Microsoft had commissioned a Windows Resiliency Initiative which aimed to engrave security measures more deeply into Windows in order to make a crisis like last year’s more unlikely.
Microsoft had also switched to a black screen error message in test builds of Windows 11 in 2021 but the current change is going to be a permanent one.
The new black screen just shows the error message: “Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart” along with error code at the bottom and the restart percentage firmly placed in the middle.
Apart from changing the BSOD error message, Microsoft is also rolling out a new Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) feature with the new Windows build that is aimed at allowing Windows devices to boot up quickly in case the restart was unsucessful.
