Microsoft Windows NT (Error Screens)
1st Screen (1995-2000)
Visuals:
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: Depends on the situation. Most of the time, it's either the computer audio freezing or stuttering. Sometimes none, especially when there's no audio playing before the error screen.
Availability:
2nd Screen (2001-2012)
Visuals:
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: Same as before.
Availability: The screen was first used for Windows XP, and was reused for Windows Vista and Windows 7.
3rd Screen (2012-)
Visuals: On a blue background, a sad face emoticon is seen on the left side of the screen. Below is the error message, which now reads "Your PC ran into a problem and it needs to restart, we're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you.".
Early Variant: On build 7955 of Windows 8, the background is black and the message simply reads "Your computer needs to restart. It encountered a problem and will restart automatically.", the emoticon doesn't appear either.
Variants:
- On Windows Insider builds of Windows 10 and Windows 11, the background is green.
- Starting with Windows 10's "Anniversary Update", a QR code was added to the screen along with the text "For more information about this issue and possible fixes, visit https://www.windows.com/stopcode".
- On Windows 11, the background is darker.
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: Same as before.
Availability: