The original Blue Screen of Death was written by Steve Ballmer

[Scorpus]

Most long-time users of Windows have probably witnessed a few Blue Screens of Death (BSODs) in their time using the operating system. But one thing you probably didn't know (until you read the title of this article), is that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer actually wrote the original version of the BSOD.

Microsoft developer Raymond Chen revealed this tidbit in a blog post. The story begins with Windows 3.1 back in 1992 and Ballmer as head of the Systems Division. He visited the Windows team one day and didn't think the wording of the Ctrl+Alt+Del dialog sounded quite right, so the team challenged him to do a better job. And he did.

According to Chen, the phrasing that Ballmer came up with made it into the final product almost word for word. It was the first appearance of the BSOD in Windows, which was used to let people know that an application had, essentially, crashed.

Nowadays the BSOD is reserved for fatal system-level crashes, often arising from driver issues or dodgy hardware. Windows 8.1 displays a frowny face and a short paragraph explaining the predicament before restarting, having evolved significantly since its early iterations.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57958-the-original-blue-screen-of-death-was-written-by-steve-ballmer.html

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...now that's an interesting bit of PC technology trivia.

That guy was annoying us from day one.

 

[p51d007]

So, besides making the "Crazy Eddie" type commercials, running around on stage sweating a gallon of water, the BSOD was one of his other "achievement"....classic!

 

[Jamesbrah]

Long live steve ballmer imo

 

[Guest]

Great - so now I can give it it's true name - Balmer's Screen Of Death - and perhaps call Win8 will be known as BKOD - Balmers kiss of death.

 

[misor]

I did not know steve ballmer is a 'coder'.

 

[Guest]

If stopped responding to the system how send to system ESC or ENTER keystroke?

 

[cliffordcooley]

If stopped responding to the system how send to system ESC or ENTER keystroke?

I think you missed the point of the BSOD. BSOD is triggered and allows the user to respond upon conditions that make it impossible for the user to respond. Not all errors trigger a BSOD, which is when system freezes are experienced.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

I'd rather see a blue screen than my computer stay running and damage hardware.

 

[captaincranky]

The "Blue Screen of Death", it's, "the gift that keeps on giving".

 

[turismozilla]

Ballmer Screen Of Death.

 

[Guest]

He created the message, not the crashes that prompt the message.

 

[cliffordcooley]

He created the message, not the crashes that prompt the message.

No one has made that insinuation. However the message itself would be useless, without error traps to trigger the message. So it is not just a message that was created.

 

[Guest]

Not buying this story. Sounds like one for The Onion.

 

[Guest]

This story is false.

That is to say, this is not the BSOD. Yes, it's blue, but the article's writer didn't actually bother to read, it seems.

 

[Guest]

Nope, BSOD was for a hardware failure that was unrecoverable, what this report is posting about is the CTRL+ALT+DEL Dialogue, not the BSOD, which allows you to recover from application level errors.