Windows has contributed two iconic images to the public consciousness: the default Windows XP wallpaper; and the blue screen of death. But they cut Bliss decades ago, and Windows 11 put the final nail in the coffin of Windows’ pop-culture fit by turning a blue screen of death into a black screen of death. A tragedy. Thankfully, Microsoft has now seen the cerulean light and is planning to restore the blue terminator in a future patch.
The blue/black screen of death is an agent of doom, appearing when your computer crashes so severely that all you can do is reboot, losing everything that was running . Back in the day, Windows was so fragile that BSOD was so familiar and widely deprecated. Damn, it earned that name. But with modern systems, I can easily go years without seeing a BSOD on my PC. When it turned up, it was like an estranged family member inviting themselves to Christmas dinner: I don’t want to see you and I can’t believe you did this but aw, it’s been so long, you keep how? ?
Just when it seemed like the stupid brother was going to be gone forever, Ars Technica noticed a line in the note for a future Windows patch:
- We changed the screen color to blue when the device stopped working or a stop error occurred like in previous versions of Windows.
Fixing a multitude of other, less important issues, the patch is out now for beta and preview channels. To watch Windows 11 Build 22000.346 patch notes for more.
I assume that even if Windows 11 sticks to the black BSOD, we’ll still see blues around on screens at train stations, McDonalds, digital billboards, cinemas, cash registers, and more. any other embedded system. The sun will go out before some old Windows settings are replaced.
