Microsoft’s big week continues. Fresh from killing the long-feared Windows 10 deadline coming up in October, the company has now killed the long-feared blue screen of death as well. When it comes to Windows, this feels like the end of an era.
“When unexpected restarts occur,” Microsoft posted Thursday, “they can cause delays and impact business continuity. This is why we are streamlining the unexpected restart experience.” And that’s means blue will soon become black.
More importantly, Microsoft says “we are also adding quick machine recovery, a recovery mechanism for PCs that cannot restart successfully. This change is part of a larger continued effort to reduce disruption in the event of an unexpected restart.”
Even the UI is being streamlined. This “simplified user interface,” the Windows-maker says, “improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed.”
This change will come “later this summer on all Windows 11, version 24H2 devices,” as will an enhanced quick machine recovery (QMR), which is intended to industrialize recovery from a widespread issue. Yes, the CrowdStrike event comes to mind, which did more than anything else to give the blue screen of death its 15 minutes of fame.
Per Windows Central, “while Microsoft wasn’t the culprit, it did shine a harsh light on shortcomings of Windows as an operating system regarding cybersecurity, the kernel, and third-party software makers. It was clear something needed to change, which resulted in the Windows Resiliency Initiative (WSI) last year to help solve these issues.”
After decades of dread, the Blue Screen of Death is soon to be no more. Hopefully you won’t see it again before its final demise.