Windows 11 will bring a ton of visual changes and tweaks to Microsoft’s desktop OS. However, it may also bring a change to the much-dreaded ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (BSOD).
According to The Verge, Microsoft will change the blue to black, bringing about the much scarier sounding Black Screen of Death. Beyond the colour, the screen looks identical to Windows 10. Users will still get the 🙁 face, a message about their device running into a problem and needing to restart and information about the stop code, crash dump and a QR code to scan and look up what went wrong.
It’s worth noting, however, that the Black Screen of Death isn’t enabled yet in Windows 11. Part of that is because Windows 11 is only available in preview right now, and Microsoft has used a Green Screen of Death for Windows Insider builds since 2016. That said, it seems the final Windows 11 release will have a Black Screen of Death.
Gizmodo reported that there is a way to enable the BSOD on the Windows 11 preview build, but it seems like a lot of effort something you hopefully won’t have to see.
Windows 11 is switching to a BLACK Screen of Death (BSOD). The Blue BSOD is being replaced in preview builds of Windows 11 soon https://t.co/ARCRBQBubm pic.twitter.com/KHbWDZT85n
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 2, 2021
As for why Microsoft taking the BSOD to the dark side, well, it’s not really clear. The Verge suggests it’s likely part of the wider visual redesign coming with Windows 11, which also has new black logon and shutdown screens.
Gizmodo also points out that the colour change could confuse some long-time Windows users. The BSOD goes all the way back to Windows 3.0, while the black screen typically appears when Windows freezes during an OS installation. Given that only the colour of the BSOD is changing, not the content, I’m not sure it’ll confuse too many people.
Still, Windows 11 is far from finalized and, like anything else, things could change. If Microsoft goes through with the new Black Screen of Death, I suspect we’ll see some other minor changes to it. Or, Windows 11 could ship with the classic blue.
Either way, at least I don’t have to change the acronym.
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