In the latter half of July 2024, a significant disruption swept through enterprises and businesses globally, triggered by a flawed update from CrowdStrike Falcon. The cybersecurity firm acknowledged in its Preliminary Post Incident Review (PIR) that a problematic IPC Template Type was the root cause of the outage. Microsoft subsequently provided a detailed explanation of the incident, shedding light on the technical missteps involved.
The Origins of the Blue Screen of Death
Amidst the ongoing discussions surrounding the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), Raymond Chen, a seasoned developer at Microsoft, recently contributed a thought-provoking blog post titled “There is no mystery over who wrote the Blue Screen of Death, despite what some may want you to believe.” This entry, featured in his ‘The Old New Thing’ column on Microsoft’s DevBlogs site, seeks to unravel the misconceptions surrounding the authorship of this notorious error screen.
Somehow, there is a claim of a 30-year mystery surrounding Microsoft’s Blue Screen of Death. The argument goes that there are three conflicting sources of authorship: Steve Ballmer, John Vert, and me.
But really, there is no conflict. There are three different blue-colored screens, and each has a different author.
Chen humorously notes that the original iteration of the blue screen was not a harbinger of doom, but rather a “blue screen of unhappiness.” This screen would appear when users pressed the CTRL + ALT + DEL keys simultaneously, a combination affectionately dubbed the “three-finger salute,” designed to pause a Windows session when users were less than pleased with their computer’s performance.
Interestingly, the text portion of this initial BSOU message was penned by none other than Steve Ballmer for Windows 3.1. In a twist of fate, the black BSOD that Microsoft briefly experimented with in Windows 11 actually traces its roots back to Windows 3.1, albeit with minimal information displayed. Users seeking clarity from the current BSOD might have found the earlier versions even more frustrating.
Fast forward to 1993, and we encounter the Windows NT 3.1 BSOD, which marked the first genuine blue screen of death kernel error, crafted by John Vert. This version of Windows was notable for being the first true 32-bit operating system, hence the designation NT, or New Technology.
Windows 95 introduced yet another variation of the BSOD, distinct from its predecessor in NT 3.1, allowing users the option to ignore and bypass the error message. This iteration was designed by Raymond Chen himself.
Lastly, the infamous Windows 98 BSOD made headlines during a keynote address at the annual COMDEX trade show in 1998, further cementing the blue screen’s place in tech lore.
