Say Goodbye to Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors in Windows 11

The Blue Screen of Death on Windows devices is probably one of the most feared errors that users and administrators alike may experience when using the operating system. The system becomes unusable when the error is thrown and a restart is required.

Windows may start normally afterwards, or it may try to repair the system automatically (which more often than not does not work).

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is a thing of the past in Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system, according to The Verge. While it would be great if Microsoft would get rid of the error and its causes completely, it is far from that in this case.

Microsoft made the decision to turn the Blue Screen of Death into a Black Screen of Death on Windows 11. The main reason: to match the new background color, black, of the start screen and shutdown screen of the Windows 11 operating system.

image source: The Verge

It is not a major change, but it may still confuse users expecting a Blue Screen of Death.

The last change to the infamous Blue Screen of Death dates back to 2016 when Microsoft did add QR codes to the error screens. Before that, the company added smileys when it launched the Windows 8 operating system back in 2012.

BSOD errors, the acronym still fits the new color of the error, reveal an error code that may assist technicians and administrators in fixing the issue at hand. Some generate data dumps that may help in the analysis of the issue that led to the throwing of the error.

The Black Screen of Death offers identical information to the Blue Screen of Death. It may change, considering that Windows 11 is still in development, but it seems unlikely that new information is added to the screen by Microsoft. Windows Insiders do get Green Screen of Death error messages instead.

Enable the Black Screen of Death error in Windows 11

BSOD errors are still blue currently in Windows 11. You need to make a change to the Registry of the operating system to turn them into Black Screen of Death errors (thanks to Toms Hardware for the tip). Note that this is only necessary in preview builds and won't be necessary in final builds of the operating system.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Select Start.
2. Type regedit.exe.
3. Select Registry Editor from the list of results.
4. Confirm the UAC prompt.
5. Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl.
6. Locate the value DisplayPreRelaseColor
7. Double-click on the value and set it to 0.
8. Sign-off or restart the computer.

BSOD errors should be displayed in black after you have made the change.

Closing words

Blue, Green or Black, the color does not play a role when it comes to the error that users experience. More information about the error and how to resolve the issue would probably be appreciated by the majority of users of the operating system.

Now You: when was the last time that you did encounter a BSOD on Windows?

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