BSOD—Blue Screen of Death—or, more recently, the Black Screen of Death. One of the many changes that Microsoft made in Windows 11 was revising the color of its stop error screen.
Yes, the dreaded error screen is something that most Windows users have likely experienced when a problem occurs with a device driver on their system or perhaps due to faulty hardware, even an aggressive overclock.
It is very much a part of the Windows experience.
A blue affair since time immemorial, the BSOD has been a part of the OS since Windows 1.0. It has evolved over the years with the addition of debugging and QR codes that can help users determine the cause of a problem.
But the most notable visual change to the error screen since its inception was the dark shade Microsoft applied to it in the latest version of its operating system.
For some odd and unexplained reason, the company chose to change the traditional blue screen to a black screen in Windows 11. It never talked about why it made the change, but it probably was introduced as a way to make the new OS feel different.
You know, along with the rest of the UI overhaul.
What’s even more puzzling is why it has chosen to revert back to the blue screen. Is it feedback that they got from users? The blue color is a nostalgia thing, after all, so it may not be surprising to see the public demanding it back.
If that’s the case, then the company has listened.
Insider build 22000.346 made its way out to the Beta and Release Preview channels a few days ago. Among the many fixes it brought, it also saw a reversion back to the color blue for the BSOD. Since only the background color was different, it probably was not too difficult for Redmond.
If you recall, the software titan made a similar change back in 2016 when it introduced the Green Screen of Death for Insider preview builds in order to make it easier to distinguish them from builds on the final stable version.
With Windows 11 now public, Microsoft probably felt it was time to return to the blue roots of this error screen.
