Windows 8 to have a kinder, gentler BSOD screen


by Cyril Kowaliski — 12:57 PM on September 14, 2011

The new blue screen of death? #Windows8 on Twitpic

Finally, a blue screen-of-death design for my generation! NetworkWorld reports that Microsoft has reimagined the infamous blue screen of death in Windows 8, imbuing it with a kinder, gentler quality—namely a big ASCII frown and a shorter, more concise message that would (almost) fit inside a 140-character tweet:

:(

Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart.

You can search for the error online: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

Patrick Kortendick of MobilityDigest and Xbox360Digest put up a picture of the new BSOD in the wild on TwitPic, and it looks like a reboot countdown clock is in the mix, too. Click the thumbnail on the right for the full-sized version.

I don't know how that ASCII frown will go over in the button-down business world, but I, for one, hope Microsoft keeps it. System crashes are frustrating enough as it is; having your operating system barf up a screen full of ugly, cryptic text is like twisting the knife in the wound.

   
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