Blue Screen of Death

[Schnabel]

I found this link to a screen saver for the blue screen of death. It is an amazing joke you can play on someone! http://i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20530
I might put some screen shots of it on here later, but how hasn't seen the blue screen of death yet?

What it does, It shows the blue screen of death, then "Restarts" the computer, only to go back to the blue screen of death. If you get it, press escape and you will go back to what ever you had running.
Eric

[Tristan Lall]

Here's a more direct link: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx

Microsoft bought the company that developed it, so it's now a Microsoft product.

[Michael Hill]

I've been using the blue screen of death as my screensaver for about a month now. I plan on tricking my dad by putting it on his laptop. He'll freak out.

[Schnabel]

I've been using the blue screen of death as my screensaver for about a month now. I plan on tricking my dad by putting it on his laptop. He'll freak out.

Same Here! :D

[Michelle Celio]

We used to have that screen saver in our technical class about two years ago. People would put it on the computers of people who were just starting the program and it would really freak them out. I found it kind of inappropriate they way they abused the people who didn't know exactly what they were doing.

But for a joke on the parents, priceless :)

[Greg Ross]

...But for a joke on the parents, priceless :)
See the last line of my signature. (That means I generally disapprove of "practical" jokes, BTW. :rolleyes: )

[Mike]

See the last line of my signature. (That means I generally disapprove of "practical" jokes, BTW. :rolleyes: )
"If you quote yourself, its not a quote. Its a publication." -Me

[KyleGilbert45]

Now if someone would just make a Mac version....now that would be priceless...

[Gabe]

Now if someone would just make a Mac version....now that would be priceless...
I dunno...Mac people are pretty attached to their computers. You might be chased out of the country by pitchfork-wielding Mac addicts for even trying that. :p

[Alex698]

Now if someone would just make a Mac version....now that would be priceless...

I know in Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) there is a screen saver with almost every BSOD for every major operating system

[PandaMan]

The title of this thread reminds of our high quality school computers.

[JaneYoung]

We each make choices each day regarding how and when we apply our knowledge and our skills. If we are being helpful and of service, that is one thing. If we are causing harm or worry, that is quite another. Our choices define who we are and what we are made of.

Jane

[Eric Finn]

I've been using that screenserver for a few days (I found it while stumbling). Although I probably will think it's the screensaver next time I get a BSoD. :)

[TubaMorg]

As both a victim and an instigator of practical jokes I heartily approve of this one! The hallmark of a good practical joke is that no real harm is done. Which means, of course, that implementation of the BSOD screen saver joke would have to be closely monitored. I know plenty of people who's first instinct would be to "do a clean reinstall of the OS". You just don't want someone to unnecessarily clear their hard drive! Speaking of Macs, two guys I work with (we are all getting our phd in computational Biology), are always slipping crazy Mac jokes on to each other's computers.

Examples:
1. Screen shot of Desktop set to background (simulates a locked computer since none of the icons work! Key is to place all desktop icons into a hidden folder)

2. For laptops, Macs have a motion sensor. Install the program that sounds a "car alarm" when the Mac is disturbed.

Again, though, any joke that simulates a broken computer needs to be closely supervised to prevent accidental hard drive cleaning. If you can't be there don't do it!

[Graham Donaldson]

Again, though, any joke that simulates a broken computer needs to be closely supervised to prevent accidental hard drive cleaning. If you can't be there don't do it!

Agreed. However, if I could change the screensaver on my school laptop (darn restrictions! :mad: ), I would be doing that to everyone I could. Last year, it was really bad when you got a BSoD, because then you [sometimes] lost everything you were working on. The key would be getting the opportunity to load it on... (evil grin... gears turning in head)

[Tristan Lall]

Agreed. However, if I could change the screensaver on my school laptop (darn restrictions! :mad: ), I would be doing that to everyone I could. Last year, it was really bad when you got a BSoD, because then you [sometimes] lost everything you were working on. The key would be getting the opportunity to load it on... (evil grin... gears turning in head)If you can boot from removable media, you can easily gain enough access to change that screensaver. On the other hand, maybe that's part of the reason that the computer is restricted in the first place.

Another thing. Why so many BSODs? This isn't Windows 98 RTM or XP RTM, right?

[Wetzel]

If you can boot from removable media, you can easily gain enough access to change that screensaver. On the other hand, maybe that's part of the reason that the computer is restricted in the first place.

Another thing. Why so many BSODs? This isn't Windows 98 RTM or XP RTM, right?
I would suppose that the computers are not restricted enough. Comet cursors are pretty! :-/

Windows XP is pretty darn stable when used responsibly. Random games downloaded from random sites....not so stable.

Wetzel

[artdutra04]

Another thing. Why so many BSODs? This isn't Windows 98 RTM or XP RTM, right?There was a time when I would get at least one BSoD on my Windows XP desktop every week, all with the exact same error. After several months, I was able to track the problem back to a HP Printer driver, which had automatically installed itself somehow on my computer when I first connected the printer. After uninstalling that bad driver, I've barely had any BSoDs.

The one exception was when Windows bluescreened while installing a Critical Windows update; this then corrupted the svchost process, which rendered my desktop a sitting paperweight until I was able to reinstall Windows XP. To this day, I swear if Windows had a human personality, it would be emo. It's the only operating system I've ever used that wants to inflict pain and self-mutilation tendencies upon itself. :rolleyes:

[Tristan Lall]

There was a time when I would get at least one BSoD on my Windows XP desktop every week, all with the exact same error. After several months, I was able to track the problem back to a HP Printer driver, which had automatically installed itself somehow on my computer when I first connected the printer. After uninstalling that bad driver, I've barely had any BSoDs.

The one exception was when Windows bluescreened while installing a Critical Windows update; this then corrupted the svchost process, which rendered my desktop a sitting paperweight until I was able to reinstall Windows XP. To this day, I swear if Windows had a human personality, it would be emo. It's the only operating system I've ever used that wants to inflict pain and self-mutilation tendencies upon itself. :rolleyes: Back when XP first came out, there were a pile of annoying little things that would summon up the bluescreen. Many were related to driver writers not knowing how to write NT-based drivers, and others were due to bugs in the OS itself. With SP1 and SP2, the BSOD ought to be much less frequent.

Personally, I bring far more bluescreens upon myself than software does on my behalf. (For example, the time when I installed a Windows 98 or NT4—it wasn't too clear which—parallel-port-based ATA bridge driver on my Windows 2000 system. That required some surgery with another copy of Windows to excise the offending file, and restore the installation.)

Also, if you want to be able to cause bluescreens at will (in any NT5 variant), make a REG_DWORD at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\i8042prt\Parameters called CrashOnCtrlScroll with the value 1. When you reboot, RCtrl + 2 × ScrLk will cause an immediate BSOD. (Documentation is here.) (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139) See what I mean about causing them myself?

[Schnabel]

At my school, I was able to pass the restriction without a hack. All I did was unzip the file and then you right click on the icon and click on install. It then replaces the set screen saver with the BSOD screen saver as if you were to tell it to use it.

[Gabe]

For some odd reason it my computer sees the SysInternals Bluescreen file as AutoCAD script. It didn't do this before I installed AutoCAD last week. Any ideas what this means? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Tristan Lall]

For some odd reason it my computer sees the SysInternals Bluescreen file as AutoCAD script. It didn't do this before I installed AutoCAD last week. Any ideas what this means? :confused: :confused: :confused:AutoCAD stupidly takes over the .scr extension, believing it to be a AutoLISP script or something similar. You just need to put the screen saver in your %SYSTEMROOT%\system32 directory, then you can select it from the Display Properties control panel.

You can also go into the registry and change the (Default) value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.scr from AutoCADScriptFile to scrfile. That will restore the ability of a screensaver to be executed directly. It shouldn't hurt AutoCAD, either—you'll just have to open scripts through AutoCAD or something else, instead of double-clicking them.

Remember, a screensaver is an executable file, and therefore it can be used to deliver a malware payload. The Sysinternals screensaver is safe, but you shouldn't trust a screensaver from just anyone. In fact, this is the way that another famous exploit was performed on older versions of Windows. Recall that when you're at the logon screen, a screen saver appears by default....

[Schnabel]

Just thought I would let everyone know that I got a BSOD today, and yes I thought it was the screen saver. I can't believe how much loosing a power point ruins that screen saver. :mad:

[GRaduns340]

I've had this XP computer for five years now, and not one single BSOD, but I'm certainly using the screensaver now.

[chrisinmd]

I love this screen saver! I put it on my computer the other day and when I got back from class my computer was off and my roommate was like "your computer is so screwed up, it just keeps blue-screening!" It took me a while to stop laughing while I showed him it was just a screen saver. And this is a kid who is no stranger to computers either.