Like Pudding Pops and Benetton sweaters, one other Nineteen Eighties icon is gone. After 40 years of delivering the tragic information of a PC crash to Home windows customers, Microsoft’s notorious “blue display of loss of life” will be going away. However to not fear — a black display of loss of life will likely be changing it, albeit with out the sad emoticon face.
The notorious “blue display of loss of life” has been round since Home windows 1.0 got here out in 1985. Named for its vivid blue colour, it is a crucial error display that pops up on computer systems utilizing the Microsoft Home windows working system when the system crashes. The textual content on the display varies, but it surely’s typically accompanied by a frowning face made up of a colon and a left parenthesis. 🙁
Microsoft says the brand new black display of loss of life, which it calls a “simplified UI for sudden restarts,” will seem as a replacement beginning later this summer season on all Home windows 11, model 24H2 gadgets.
Meet the brand new black display of loss of life.
The black display of loss of life will present the cease code and defective system driver, permitting IT admins to extra rapidly determine the problem that precipitated the crash, fairly than having to make use of debugging software program.
It is not only a beauty change, it is a part of Microsoft’s Windows Resiliency Initiative, which is designed to extend resiliency and safety in Home windows methods. In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft mentioned that the brand new black display of loss of life is a part of “streamlining the sudden restart expertise” and aiding in “fast machine restoration.” The intention is to cut back restoration time to 2 seconds following a PC crash.
The Home windows Resiliency Initiative was launched following 2024’s CrowdStrike outage, which precipitated methods to go offline for quite a few companies, airports and governmental providers. Greater than 8 million gadgets had been affected.
Over 40 years, the blue display of loss of life labored its manner into popular culture, with plenty of memes, a subreddit devoted to it, and T-shirts and different objects bearing its picture.
