AppleInsider Staff
Windows users will no longer be forced to manually Google error messages to figure out why their computer crashed, as development builds of Windows 10 now include a QR code on the Blue Screen of Death.
The QR codes appeared in build 14316 of the Windows 10 Insider Preview, according to Ars Technica. Though it currently points to a generic help page, the QR code will presumably eventually direct users to specific Windows support articles.
Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death was long a spartan, utilitarian affair. It displayed a generic message and an often unintelligible crash code in a monospaced font.
That changed with Windows 8, when the BSOD was redesigned to add a sad emoticon and more nuanced error instructions.
Apple's modern equivalent — the OS X kernel panic screen — has always been somewhat more refined, though less helpful. Until OS X 10.8, rather than providing a reason, the kernel panic screen simply instructed users to perform a hard reset of their system; more recent revisions perform the reboot automatically.
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
Marko Zivkovic
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
51 Comments
Or you could just get a Mac and not crash...
How about bring it into the modern era and just have it show a giant turd emoji instead?
"Though it currently points to a generic help page, the QR code will presumably eventually direct users to specific Windows support articles." I scanned the QR code and it does indeed go to the website listed above but isn't the contents of this page about as much information as Microsoft has ever given for a BSOD? Not to rag on Apple, but OSX crashes give a lot of technical information that's not much help for 99.999% of its users. At least Microsoft gives three possible reasons. Maybe Apple could learn from this and give OSX users some help with crashes. (What's wrong with me, I'm actually giving Microsoft a backhanded compliment. Not enough tea this morning.)
