Microsoft says goodbye to its “blue screen of death”
After 40 years of good – but frustrating – service, the blue-background error message that prompted users of Microsoft's Windows operating system to restart their computer will be replaced by a more sober and "clearer" black screen.
It was the bête noire, as feared as it was hated, of all PC users: the "abject and infuriating Windows computer" error message, recalls the New York Times .
A message on a blue background – "Your computer has encountered a problem and needs to restart" –, born with the first version of Windows in the 80s, and accompanied in recent years by a sad emoticon and a QR code. And sinisterly dubbed by users "blue screen of death" .
"Today, the world prepares to bid a fond farewell to the most dreaded and remarkable error message of a generation," Microsoft announced this week that the screen would be officially replaced this summer "by a less user-friendly but more effective 'black screen of death,'" the American daily continues.
PC users will continue to rant about their computers, but the new message will more clearly tell them "the cause of the problems" - a change aimed primarily at IT professionals, as ordinary people generally just restart their computers and keep calm.
For the New York Times , the blue screen of death had become over four decades "a pop culture icon," often misused to symbolize all sorts of problems. Apple, the inventor of the competing Mac, did not hesitate to mock it, and the boss of Microsoft himself had paid the price.
The blue screen had in fact appeared "while Bill Gates and his assistant, Chris Capossela, were presenting the new Windows 98 at a trade show in 1998," recalls the American daily.
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