Following the news that Microsoft has finally announced Windows 11, tidbits for the new OS have been trickling out – like how Windows 11 is changing the blue screen of death to black.

This is the biggest change to the blue screen of death since the sad emoji in 2021 or QR codes in 2016. Now, things have come full circle as Windows 11 is changing the blue screen of death to black (via The Verge) in the full release build of the operating system.

For a long time this was one of the worst things for a PC user to see – whether during bootup or while using your PC, the blue screen of death was originally when a DOS-based application failed and later it was a general catchall for something failing during bootup.

Currently, the Windows 11 Insider Preview has kept the blue screen of death that usually comes with a sad face emoji and the aforementioned QR code and basic diagnostic information. This usually helps IT professionals or system administrators to analyze the data dump that comes with the BSOD, so they can identify what caused the kernel error or critical OS bug.

Further, users could also run into the new black screen of death with faulty or outdated hardware drivers, hardware failures, and even memory faults or errors as well. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed why they’re changing the look and feel of the BSOD, but perhaps we’ll never know.

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