Microsoft finally felt that this most infamous of all technical curses could not be left to fly free: The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). For over 40 years, it had flaunting its presence at the users, now that classic blue error screen is a thing of the past. Until then, your PC will carry on crashing, only the presentation of crashes has changed.
As with Windows since it was the “Underdog,” BSOD appeared whenever there was an error on the system. That blue screen with white text became so frustrating in its brilliance that users would panic and shout, “NOT AGAIN!” Now it is being put into a facelift; no more blue, just a plain black screen with bare minimum copy.
The change caused tons of discussions in gaming and Windows circles, some nostalgic-the whole point of which nonetheless remains a mystery! @ElMinorJs1 replied, “Nooo not the classic jumpscare,” while @ImSeeno remembered those were the “worse moments ever” during the Kazaa/Limewire days. But some other users along the lines of @nyxthenotpng expressed relief by saying, “thank god that shit traumatized me.”
However, some commentators questioned the validity of labeling this an upgrade. @caffeinemilktea seemed to echo the most obvious concern: “So it’s just a black screen with a simple message and no error code? That makes it harder to figure out what’s going on 😩.” @ThePanForFrying then summarized the overall suspicion: “Welcome back to ‘Changing things that literally don’t need it’ Windows edition #4,765.”
Of course, there were some gamers who could not resist making a joke out of the whole thing. The new crash screen, in @ParadigmCityy’s words, might say, “LOLOLOL GO FUCK YOURSELF AND LOSE SOME WEIGHT!” On the other side, @spacepooudoer lamented, “We got BSOD death before GTA6.”
So, for what reason is this change? Microsoft never seemed to elaborate much, but it probably is linked to the ongoing work to improve Windows. The new black screen is just cleaner and less in-your-face; basically, less likely to rip the heart out of an innocent gamer during an intense gaming session at three in the morning.
Of course, it does not negate the fact that in a weird way, this is just another color for a crash screen. Going by what happened before, I think we are likely to witness more of these.
So long, Blue Screen of Death! You were scary, frustrating, and sometimes meme-worthy. For better or worse, you held a place in PC history. Now, who is ready for the Black Screen of Death era?
(Okay. Seriously. Please don’t crash.)
