Windows 7 BSOD, Some Things Never Change

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 14 Jan 2009

Not even Windows 7’s mascot, the Siamese fighting fish that is proudly displayed by default on the desktop cannot prevent something that we’ve come to expect from a Windows OS, the blue screen of death (BSOD). Microsoft has issued Windows 7 Beta 1 a few days ago, but info regarding the BSOD is just now starting to surface. Apparently people are not surprised to get the BSOD; they are surprised that Microsoft did not bother to make any visual modifications to it.

Here is what I mean: Microsoft has been working long and hard to make Windows 7 better than Vista in both terms of looks and functionality (just take a look at the minimum system requirements for example). Microsoft has even gone ahead and set up a web page that provides additional Windows 7 themes, wallpapers and gadgets, so clearly they take the visual aspect very seriously. Even the mascot, the Siamese fighting fish I mentioned above was not chosen randomly, it was chosen because it is part of the Betta splendens species and is popularly known as “the Beta fish” (get it?)

Even when you fail, you should do it with a bit more grace and poise – so change that old-fashioned BSOD. Here is one more thing that gets me all annoyed: Microsoft named this next iteration of their Windows OS, Windows 7. The name was intentionally simple so that people would not confuse it with Vista, and so that they would know this is the 7th Windows build. It stands to reason then that people who will be using it will not exactly be computer geniuses, and so we reach the point I am trying to make: if you are not going to change the looks of the BSOD, at least get the error message to make sense to Joe-user. The only thing we can hope for is that the hidden features in Windows 7 that Microsoft is not yet ready to reveal will also refer to the dreaded blue screen of death.



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