Black is the new blue as Windows makes a big change. The “BSoD” error will retain the “B”, but it now means something different.
One of Microsoft’s oldest errors is getting a change this year, as blue becomes the new black. Yes, the blue screen of death is becoming the black screen of death, though “death” might not be the word the maker of windows is going for.
While much of the world was introduced to the long standing BSoD error during the Crowdstrike debacle of 2024 (remember that weekend?), the computing world has known about the BSoD for 40 years, since the error message popped up in Windows 1.0.
Clearly, 40 years is a long time for an error message, and so Microsoft is changing things. Kind of. Finally. Honestly, we have mixed feelings about this.
As part of what Microsoft calls the “Windows Resiliency Initiative”, where Windows is set to work with more security companies, Microsoft is making a change to the restart mechanism for Windows 11.
According to Microsoft, that includes a “simplified user interface that pairs with the shortened experience”, something that these days lasts about two seconds. The updated experience is basically to convert blue to black, and to improve readability with minimal technical information.
And just like that, the blue screen of death became the black screen of death, or alternatively, the black screen of minimal information in the hopes that your computer restarts quickly. Here’s hoping the next time there’s a failure like the Crowdstrike debacle, it progresses quickly with two seconds of restart as opposed to a minimum of two days of anger and gnashing of teeth.
