The Blue Screen of Death by Larry McLemore (What is it?)Abbreviated BSOD, an error that can appear on computers running in a Windows environment. This includes even the earliest versions of Windows, such as Windows 3.0 and 3.1, and still occurs in later versions such as Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, and Windows 2000. Called the blue screen of death because when the error occurs, the screen turns blue, and the computer almost always freezes and requires rebooting. Everyone using a Windows operating system has seen a screen similar to the one below. This happens mostly on Windows ME and older operating systems. You will notice that the error message gives several things to try, but rarely do any of them work. You nearly always have to restart your computer to fix this. Of course by doing this you will lose anything that you might have been working on. The information displayed on the blue screen of death is in any case not enough to determine what went wrong. Sometimes you will get a blue screen after installing new software or hardware, or you might get it after uninstalling software or hardware. If this happens you are lucky, because you know what caused it and you can go from there. Sometimes you will have no idea why the screen appears. Officially, Microsoft says you can avoid this by making sure you update all your programs religiously. I am sure this helps, but it has been my experience that you can still get the blue screen from time to time. The reason I wrote this article is to let those that are new to computers know that when the BSOD appears, that it happens to all of us. It does not always mean that you have done something wrong. I can tell you if a time comes when you can move up to Windows XP, you will not see the BSOD near as often. HOME