Windows’ Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) began as a bug and eventually morphed into the dedicated crash screen that we all know and love—I use that term loosely, by the way. But it seems that the BSoD will undergo a major change in Windows 11. After nearly 30 years of being blue, BSoD may become the Black Screen of Death.
First reported by The Verge, the new BSoD isn’t fully implemented in the Windows 11 preview build, though you can trigger it by fooling around in your registry. Without any registry changes, Windows 11 will bring up the blue screen when purposefully crashed. Users also report seeing a green crash screen in Windows 11, which Microsoft introduced to Windows Insider builds in 2016.
If you are in the Windows Insider Program and are on build 22000. You can enable the Black Screen of Death by going to [HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCrashControl] and setting DisplayPreReleaseColor to 0. You will need to reboot for this to take effect.
— Xeno (@XenoPanther) July 1, 2021
Aesthetically, Windows’ BSoD hasn’t changed much since the 90s. The last major change came in 2012, when Microsoft added a sad face to the BSoD and switched the crash screen’s background from royal blue to a dull cerulean blue. Microsoft also added QR codes to the BSoD in 2016, which makes sense, given how most people are stuck troubleshooting on their phone when their PC breaks.
Microsoft is probably switching to a Black Screen of Death to match Windows 11’s new power-on and shutdown screens, which are black. That said, there’s no guarantee that Microsoft will commit to this change.
For more information on Windows 11, check out our in-depth, hands-on overview of the Windows 11 Insider preview.
Source: The Verge
