Microsoft Windows NT (Error Screens)
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1st Screen (June 9, 1993-May 14, 2001)
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 (May 23, 2001-November 10, 2010)
Visuals:
Variant: Windows Server 2012 build 7788 to Windows 8 build 7880 have the text in a higher resolution.
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 (December 9, 2010-June 23, 2011)
Visuals: On a black background, a message reads "Your computer needs to restart." Below that is smaller text saying "It encountered a problem and will restart automatically."
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: Same as before.
Availability: This screen was seen on Windows 8 builds 7899 to 8032.
4th Screen (July 23, 2011-)
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 8045 of Windows 8, the background is black and the message simply reads "Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart." Starting with build 8061, the background is blue.
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: This screen was first seen on Windows 8 build 8045.
