BetaWiki:Featured article/2022-05

A blue screen of death is a common name for the screen that occurs during a system crash in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is shown when the operating system can no longer function safely due to a fatal system error. On Windows NT, blue screens are also commonly known as STOP errors, referring to the  label that introduced the error code up to Windows 7.

A user interface for displaying important system messages was first introduced in Windows 3.0, which took the form of a full screen prompt that suspended Windows until being dismissed by the user. The first known build to implement the Windows NT blue screen is the October 1991 build, and would eventually evolve during Windows 8's development to be replaced to a simplified message with a sad emoticon.