Blue Screen of Death Goes Black for Windows 8

Ah, the Blue Screen of Death has been a part of the Windows computing experience since the old days of 3.x, surviving today still in Windows 7. There are early signs, though, that Windows 8 could do away with them forever.

Of course, Windows 8 should be the most stable of them all whenever it's released, meaning that users should see fewer crashes than ever. On the chance that they do, it could be a black screen instead of that iconic blue screen.

A forum member on MyDigitalLife noted a new sort of error screen in an unfinished version of Windows 8 that looks like this:

WinRumors noted that it's not unheard of for Microsoft to change the colors of its error screens in the final release. For example, Window Vista beta versions had a red screen of death, which eventually reverted back to blue on the final release.

In any case, the BSoD will still be a BSoD.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • lolz
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  • irish_adam
    "Of course, Windows 8 should be the most stable of them all whenever it's released"

    >_> yeah right just like ME should have been more stable than 98?

    anyway every operating system has problems when its first released, i remember XP wasnt that great when it first came out and i stuck with 98 until service pack 1
    Reply
  • bejabbers
    As long as the black screen contains the same information as the blue screen, then it doesn't matter. Only computer idiots hate the BSOD, people who know what they're doing rely on it to figure out what's causing the system failure.
    Reply
  • Marco925
    Geez... could it be dumbed down any further?
    Reply
  • Gucio
    Hahahahaha, it still will be called BSOD.
    Reply
  • Zeh
    "In any case, the BSoD will still be a BSoD."
    I came here just to post that.. lol
    Would be really weird to call it RSoD or something like that.
    Reply
  • Ciuy
    black is more grim :)
    Reply
  • teodoreh
    Same here. Microsoft can use Black, Brown or Blue colors for their screens of death! ;D
    Reply
  • pelov
    Windows has a tendency to release a good OS followed by a bad one.

    Win 2k > win ME > win xp > vista > 7 > 8?

    Granted, 2k and ME were released very close to each other and perhaps for separate markets, they ultimately ended up competing against each other and ME was definitely the worse off.

    Any takers on windows 8 being a disappointment or a success?
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I have seen the black screen of death on win7, is a bit different than the blue (different message) but still helpful.
    Reply