The Microsoft outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike software update has caused the return of a familiar — and dreaded — screen for many Windows users: what has come to be known informally as the “blue screen of death,” indicating that their computer systems are down.
The outage has affected consumers and businesses across the globe, including airlines, banks, health care providers, telecoms, retailers and even billboards in New York City’s Times Square. The blue screens were visible on computer screens at multiple airports Friday, according to images shared on social media.
The screens, have been around for decades, were designed for early Windows systems to display when users’ operating systems glitched. Microsoft, which describes them as “blue screen errors” or STOP code errors, says the screen continues to be displayed “if a serious problem causes Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly.”