In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft revealed a new black version of its iconic “blue screen of death” (BSOD), known for appearing after unexpected system crashes on Windows computers. The new BSOD will look much more like the black screen you see during a Windows update and will also list the stop code and fault system driver, details that weren’t always visible before. Much to the dismay of many, however, the iconic sad emoticon face will be retiring.
This move isn’t just a cosmetic change, but comes as part of Microsoft’s “Windows Resiliency Initiative (WRI),” a broader effort to improve the resiliency of Microsoft’s products following last year’s CrowdStrike incident, which left more than 8 million Windows machines and digital boards across the world with frowny faces.
Microsoft touted the updates as an “easier” and “faster” way to recover from restarts, stating that it is “streamlining the unexpected restart experience.” David Weston, Microsoft's vice president of enterprise and OS security, explained the change to The Verge, saying, “This is really an attempt at clarity and providing better information, and allowing us and customers to really get to the core of the issue so we can fix it faster.”
Arriving later this summer alongside a host of new features
Microsoft will roll out this new BSOD design in an update to Windows 11 “later this summer” and also plans to update the user interface to match the Windows 11 design. A new Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) feature will also arrive alongside it, designed to quickly restore machines that can’t boot.
Apart from that, Microsoft also plans to introduce features like Connected Cache to help save internet bandwidth. Universal Print lets users release their print requests from anywhere in the organization to any authorized printer. A new hotpatch update, which automatically installs important Windows security updates once a month without requiring a restart. And Windows 365 Reserve, which provides users access to a temporary, pre-configured Cloud PC.
That being said, users on older Windows 10 systems will still be greeted with the familiar frowning face emoji, white text on a blue background, and a QR code. Whether that's a fair trade-off for missing out on feature updates and security patches is up for debate.
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