Microsoft is finally retiring the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error message in Windows, replacing it with a new one. The BSOD has been a part of Windows for over 40 years, but following a CrowdStrike error that caused millions of devices to boot to a BSOD, Microsoft has decided to replace the legacy error message with a new, simplified format.
The new error message, called the Black Screen of Death, departs from the frowning face emoji, white text on a blue background, and QR code, in favour of a simple black screen displaying the error message.
David Weston, Microsoft‘s vice president of enterprise and OS security, explained the change to The Verge, saying: “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,”
“Part of it just cleaner information on what exactly went wrong, where it’s Windows versus a component.” he added.
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)”.
“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.
Apart from the new Black Screen of Death error message, Microsoft is also adding a quick machine recovery feature which will allow Windows devices to quickly boot up if a restart was unsucessful.
