Microsoft to Replace Blue Screen of Death With Simpler Black Error Screen Later This Year

Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is slated to be discontinued, and the company has now shed some light on when the error message is getting the axe. While the company previously said it was replacing its BSOD, its successor is black and doesn't include the text emoticon with a frown. It will also provide users with additional crash related information, which could help IT administrators quickly identify the issue with a computer after a crash.

Windows 11 to Get Black Screen of Death That Resembles Update Screen

David Weston, Microsoft VP of Enterprise and OS Security, told The Verge in an interview that Microsoft will replace the Blue Screen of Death with a new black screen on Windows 11. The redesign will be rolled out "later this summer" alongside the quick machine recovery (QMR) feature. We can expect users to see the new BSOD design before August or September, based on the timeline shared by the executive.

Microsoft previously tested a green Windows 11 error screen (tap to expand)
Photo Credit: Microsoft

When the updated BSOD design is rolled out to users, they will see a much simpler design, minus the large frown emoji. We actually have a fairly good idea of what the new Black Screen of Death will look like, courtesy of Microsoft. Earlier this year, the company rolled out a green coloured error screen to replace the BSOD, which was available to Windows Insiders testers on the beta channel.

The new black screen appears to be identical to the green one shared by the company in March. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Windows 11 update screen, with centre-aligned text telling users that the computer is restarting because of an error and the percentage that reveals the progress of the crash log collection process.

Users will also see a stop code with an error that can be shared with system administrators, while the black screen will also inform them about the process that failed (for example, it will tell users that a particular driver file failed, such as rdbss.sys).

It's also worth noting that this isn't the first time that Microsoft has announced that the BSOD warning would be changed from blue. Back in 2021, the company tested a black version of the warning message, but that version also included the text emoticon with a colon and a bracket (a frown).

The move to axe the BSOD on Windows 11 comes decades after it was introduced on Windows. A year ago, a technical glitch caused by security firm CrowdStrike impacted millions of Windows computers in an unbootable state. This prompted Microsoft to work on improving Windows security and an improved recovery process for PCs, which will make its way to users later this year.