Who is behind Microsoft's infamous Blue Screen of Death?
Microsoft's notorious "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD), an error screen signaling an unrecoverable system error, has been there for over 30 years. The recent global cyber outage, triggered by a CrowdStrike software glitch, thrust the dreaded BSOD back into public consciousness. The identity of the creator of this infamous blue screen with white text, has long been debated.
The misinterpretation of Steve Ballmer's role
A blog post by Microsoft developer Raymond Chen suggested that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was responsible for its creation. Chen had stated that Ballmer wrote the text for the Ctrl+Alt+Del dialog in Windows 3.1, which was misconstrued by many as him being responsible for the BSOD. In a subsequent blog post titled "Steve Ballmer did not write the text for the blue screen of death," Chen clarified his previous statement, expressing frustration at how his words were misinterpreted.
Raymond Chen's claim disputed
Chen then claimed he was the one who coded the BSOD into Windows 95. However, this assertion was disputed in 2021 by former Microsoft developer Dave Plummer. Plummer claimed that it was actually Microsoft developer John Vert who created the modern Windows blue screen in version 3.1. According to Plummer, Vert's machine and his preferred editor both featured white text on a blue screen, leading to a "more consistent experience."
