Windows 11 Kills The Blue Screen Of Death

Windows 11 will soon be available for testing in a less-risky manner. Meanwhile, Microsoft has unveiled some more changes, including an end - of sorts - to the "Blue Screen of Death".

Microsoft has confirmed the system will be available to people in the Windows Insider Program in its Beta testing channel as of July 29. It is officially the first time something resembling the finished Windows 11 is available in a complete and fully usable manner.

Up until then, Windows 11 has only available in the Dev channel, meaning some features and actions may be unavailable. Microsoft also stresses that Dev channel software could be unstable and even crash. It's really aimed at hardcore tech enthusiasts and best run on a separate machine rather than for everyday use.

After the Beta channel, Windows 11 will eventually move on to the Release Preview channel. That's where Microsoft judged the system is effectively complete and theoretically ready for the general public, with this final round of testing simply being to catch any "show stopping" bugs that have somehow slipped through.

Grids Locked

A few more changes have already been unveiled, though it's still mainly the look and feel of the system that's different. Hovering the cursor over the Maximize button in an application Windows will now bring up a series of options for arranging windows on the screen. (Source: neowin.net)

For example, options might include a grid where each window takes up a quarter of the screen, or a layout with one window taking up the entire left-hand side and two other windows taking up the top-right and bottom-left quarters. The idea is to slightly speed up the process by which users can currently arrange windows by individually manipulating them.

Back In Black

One change that hopefully few users will notice is an end to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death that appears when a Windows computer has irretrievably crashed. The screen isn't disappearing, but instead will now have a black background rather than blue. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

The screen, officially called an exception error or stop error, will be otherwise unchanged. As with Windows 10 it will display a QR code which users can photograph and automatically go to a help page covering the specific problem, rather than have to write down a lengthy error code.

What's Your Opinion?

Do you have any interest in testing Windows 11 before its final release? Do you like the sound of the automatic window arrangements? When did you last see the Blue Screen of Death?