Screens of Death: From Diagnostic Aids to a Sad Emoji
1 min read
Summary
While there are different names for them, the idea of a screen showing a system error that heralds an imminent shutdown is a common one in operating systems.
While these screens started out highly informative, they have devolved over time, with Windows 11 now seemingly rendering them near useless.
There is a certain amount of design philosophy that goes into these screens, with Windows NT focusing on information and Windows 9x/ME on keeping the user in control, even after the system has crashed.
Additionally, there has been some historical variance in how these screens are implemented, with Linux opting for an emoji-based “Keep it mind” screen that provides next to no information on the cause of the failure.
Implementations also vary widely between operating systems, with ReactOS keeping the Windows 2000-era BSOD format, while Windows 11 will soon have a black background variation that minimised the amount of information displayed on it.
The information density on these screens has been progressively reduced over time, to the point where Microsoft now apparently expects users to no longer even care about the information on them.
