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Glossary Entry: Blue Screen of Death
Definition
The Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, is an error screen that appears when something causes the Microsoft Windows operating system to crash. This is opposed to a program crashing, which generally just makes it unresponsive.
This error screen gets its name from its simplistic appearance: it's little more than white text on a blue background.
This error screen gets its name from its simplistic appearance: it's little more than white text on a blue background.
Additional Information
Various things can cause the operating system to crash. These include problems with the file system, driver conflicts or issues, and hardware problems. Fortunately, modern versions of Microsoft Windows are much more stable than the older editions, so users aren't seeing these screens as frequently as we once did.
A screenshot of a BSOD, triggered on a virtual machine running Windows 95.
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