Microsoft fades to black as it removes ‘blue screen of death’ from Windows

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) plans to replace its notorious blue screen of death from Windows and replace it with a black one as the tech giant retools its security features following last summer’s CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) debacle.

Last July, a worldwide outage led to the blue screen of death on Windows systems, while users worldwide were unable to access Microsoft 365 services. The outage was caused by a glitch in an update of CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity platform Falcon Sensor. The outage hit backend operations at multiple industry sectors, including airlines, banks, hospitals and broadcast media, across the world.

As a result, Microsoft has launched the Windows Resiliency Initiative, or WRI.

“WRI is an initiative designed to make all digital environments touched by Microsoft products more secure and resilient,” the company said in a blog post. “WRI prioritizes preventing, managing and recovering from security and reliability incidents, mitigating issues swiftly and providing seamless recovery across the Windows platform.”

One of the changes includes a faster recovery when Windows experiences unexpected restarts. For more than 40 years, this was accompanied with a blue screen and an error message. The new unexpected restart screen will now be black.

“The updated UI (user interface) improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed,” Microsoft said.

It will be released for all editions of Windows 11, version 24H2 devices later this summer. It also includes a better remedy for multiple unexpected restarts.

“In the case of consecutive unexpected restarts, devices can get stuck in the Windows Recovery Environment, impacting productivity and often requiring IT teams to spend significant time troubleshooting and restoring affected devices,” the company said. “This is where quick machine recovery can help. When a widespread outage affects devices from starting properly, Microsoft can broadly deploy targeted remediations to affected devices via Windows RE—automating fixes with QMR and quickly getting users to a productive state without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.”

Windows is also improving its endpoint security platform and its virus detection capabilities through the Microsoft Virus Initiative, where it works with cybersecurity partners such as CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) and SentinelOne (S).

“Security product updates must be gradual, leverage deployment rings and leverage monitoring to minimize negative impacts,” Microsoft said.