For several years, a system crash in a Windows operating system resulted in a Blue Screen of Death or BSOD. However, moving ahead, Windows 11 will greet users with a Black Screen of Death.
Windows 11 may soon switch to a Black Screen of Death for denoting a complete operating system crash. It is not clear why, but Microsoft hasn’t officially made the change yet.
Microsoft experimenting with Black color as the background for the BSOD screen in Windows 11:
The Blue Screen of Death or BSOD is familiar to all Windows operating system users. There may not be one user who is yet to experience a Windows PC crash, which generally results in the BSOD screen.
The Windows OS has been crashing occasionally for a very long time. A hardware conflict, a software bug, a faulty driver, unexpected disk activity, etc. have been the common reasons for the Windows OS to display the BSOD.
Windows 11 is switching to a BLACK Screen of Death (BSOD). The Blue BSOD is being replaced in preview builds of Windows 11 soon https://t.co/ARCRBQBubm pic.twitter.com/KHbWDZT85n
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 2, 2021
The BSOD greets users whenever Windows OS fails to revive or recover from an unexpected problem. It usually denotes a complete failure of the OS, and a reboot is one of the solutions.
Historically, Microsoft has retained the blue color as the background. However, the company did test an aesthetically pleasing Green Screen of Death in experimental Windows 10 Builds, before reverting back to black.
It seems Microsoft is once again experimenting with the background color, and this time, it won’t have to rename the acronym of the error page. In other words, the name BSOD will still remain valid and relevant.
The need for a ‘uniform color for all system events’ made Microsoft choose Black:
It seems Microsoft has been working hard to offer uniformity across Windows 11. The company has tweaked the aesthetics, which includes system prompts, notifications, error messages, and even icons to have a unified appearance.
The new Black Screen of Death is apparently the result of this cosmetic overhaul. It is not clear why, but Windows 11 continues to use a blue background for crash screens.
Microsoft Is Changing The Blue Screen Of Death Into Some Pussy Little Black Screen Of Sadness In Windows 11 https://t.co/N1FmD8oI3h pic.twitter.com/rtrpHFUdh9
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 3, 2021
The latest Preview Build of Windows 11 reportedly has the same prevalent Blue Screen of Death instead of the new one with a Black background. Windows Insider program participants, however, can configure a Registry setting to enable the black screens.
To enable the new Black Screen of Death, launch the Registry Editor and head over to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl Registry key. In the right pane, change the value of the DisplayPreRelaseColor to 0.
Based on the other Windows 11 UI changes, I think this new Black Screen of Death (BSOD) will be in the final Windows 11 RTM build. https://t.co/iSxIojCnkQ
— Martin (@MartinNobel_) July 1, 2021
To witness the new BSOD with Black background, open a Command Prompt with Admin privileges and enter the following command, but save all work beforehand:
taskkill /f /im svchost.exe
It is important to note that Microsoft has only changed the background color of the new BSOD. Everything else remains the same.