The Blue Screen of Death Is Dead

Nearly everyone has had the misfortune of seeing the famous error screen indicating a serious computer crash, referred to as the Blue Screen of Death. (If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky!) Microsoft has announced that new updates to Windows 11 will replace the BSOD with a simplified version: white text on a black screen. But this change represents more than a cosmetic tweak: one of the more fascinating features in the forthcoming update is something called “Quick Machine Recovery”. After a crash, the computer will automatically phone home to Microsoft and check for a known solution. If one is found it will apply it and attempt to restore your computer without any additional input from the user. It is interesting to note that the development of Quick Machine Recovery is a direct result of the July 2024 Crowdstrike incident that crippled 8.5 million computers worldwide and hit airlines particularly hard. IT admins are cautiously optimistic about this new feature, but I don’t think our job will be in jeopardy for a long time to come!