Why are Bluescreens Blue?

Dave tracks down the original developer responsible for the very first Windows Bluescreen, plus how to make your machine Bluescreen in other colors.
How to show BSOD instead of Sad Smiley Screen: winaero.com/show-bsod-details...
Download NotMyFault: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi...
See Raymond's blog for a good explanation of why the CTRL-ALT-DEL screen is different from the NT bluescreen: devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnew...
See also his article on writing the original "blue screen of death": devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnew...
00:00 - Introduction
01:12 - What is a Bluescreen?
02:00 - A Famous Windows 98 Bluescreen
03:15 - Forza Bluescreens
04:00 - What causes a Bluescreen?
05:30 - Should You be able to Continue?
07:00 - It's a Driver's Fault!
08:45 - Bluescreens Over Time
09:40 - SteveB's Contribution
10:28 - Searching for JVert
12:30 - A Singular Father
13:35 - It's Caerulean, Dummy!
14:50 - LIVESTREAM info
15:12 - Redscreen
I get a lot of questions about which keyboard I'm using as well as various other camera and studio equipment questions, so here are the highlights:
CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (Cherry MX Blue Switches)
amzn.to/31UrUUD
Sony FX3 or A7SIII Cameras
amzn.to/31TRdWK
amzn.to/3wG9iG7
Aputure 120D Mark II Light and Light Dome II Mini
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amzn.to/31XwBx2
Glide Gear TMP100 Prompter
amzn.to/3ux84Ll

[@heftyjo2893]

As a support technician this is actually a big help for me. I get a lot of customer that ask me, "Why is the screen blue?". Now I can take a deep breath and proceed to tell them a 30 minute story. I'm sure they'll love that....

[@MrMattumbo]

If you tell them a boring story every time they have a problem maybe they'll stop calling you to fix stupid/simple problems...

[@langer24106]

Just fix my computer!!

[@langer24106]

@Gea Sih they’re much less common, but still happen

[@DerStoeppel]

yeah, thats very true!! real customers love real information!!!!

[@MarkJeanmougin]

Sounds like @HeftyJo bills by the hour! 😂

[@MidnightSt]

"You can boot, code, and crash, all in the same color scheme!" Shame this was never used as a marketing blurb, it's great.

[@akulkis]

Well, accurate at least.

[@Brahvim]

I made a personal clip out of it, _hah!_

[@cferracini]

That was truly great

[@JamesOfKS]

no one was marketing the MIPS risc box with slick edit to a windows user i am guessing.

[@glennso47]

Just like Biden who told the coal miners that when they lose their jobs they can learn to boot, code and crash. Or something like. 🤷‍♂️that.

[@V3ryan]

I recall with Windows 95 seeing the "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" message every so often. I especially recall a funny story of my aunt seeing that message and worried that the police were coming.

[@nematolvajkergetok5104]

Your aunt was precisely the target audience for Microsoft products.

[@user-bh6ey1ke4n]

Aunt... I remember a guy on _software_conference_ asking a guy from Microsoft: - Why do you send my texts to other people? - ??? - When I close MS Word it says: "Your Clipboard is not empty. Contents of the clipboard could be available to the other programs". Why do you send my texts to other people?

[@nematolvajkergetok5104]

@@user-bh6ey1ke4n The Internet stores data on crystals. Everybody knows that.

[@jemagif78]

lol

[@BeyondAldebaran]

I remember being a kid sneaking on my dad’s computer, seeing this once, and thinking “oh shit oh shit oh shit”

[@Zebra_M]

Damn. I used to be thoroughly amused how unplugging my USB headset adapter used to sometimes BSOD my work laptop, blaming Windows for letting an audio driver kill the system - and while I came here to learn 'why blue', I learned that this scenario is actually very reasonable and even desirable to prevent damage. Well played.

[@keithws2779]

I don't understand what happened, all I know is that it was related to audio somehow. Basically, I unplugged a speaker from my PC (and it had no other audio output device connected) and it totally screwed my machine. Internet connectivity was completely gone. All "restore Windows" options wouldn't work. I downloaded an install disc image at work to put onto a USB stick, but... Our computers at work won't allow us to copy stuff to USB. So I had to burn it to a CD and use an external DVD drive. But then there was some issue that I can't remember the details of - but it wouldn't read the disc. It took me a solid week to fix. (And it's really bugging me that I can't remember the last problem/solution) But now I make sure that there's ALWAYS some headphones plugged into my computer so that it'll have at least one audio output device.

[@keithws2779]

Also, I forgot to mention - I never got a blue screen. Just sudden "nothing works".

[@sergheiadrian]

"You can boot, code and crash all in the same color scheme".

[@DemetryRomanowski]

Sounds like a typical PC experience.

[@noelj62]

No panic

[@emielkooij1698]

@@noelj62 only Kernel Panic ;)

[@geoffstrickler]

Thanks, but I’ll pass on that. Prefer serious crashes like kernel panic have a distinctive appearance. Of course I prefer that they don’t happen, but when they do, I want it to be obvious, and NOT FLASHING.

[@j777]

Sounds like he just didn't want his boss to see how many times he was crashing the pc in a day

[@geoffstrickler]

Dave, you’re a good storyteller.

[@DavesGarage]

Thanks! Trying to get a little better each time...

[@sbrunner69]

Dave your are not really a good story teller. You are a fantastic story teller! So many topics I’ve always wondered about. Please tell us the history of ctl-alt-del. I saw something about how ms regretted it. Please tell that story please.

[@ketankansara3184]

Genuinely enjoyed it! Brilliant work!

[@tiqo8549]

@@DavesGarage How can you try to be better when you're already the best? Keep it like this..we all like this very, very much!

[@JanBabiuchHall]

@@DavesGarage I'm loving the writing style. I think your reading will naturally get better with time. Right now it seems like you're very tense and focused on not making a mistake in reading the prompter.

[@pureventrue2357]

Got to 11:15 (wrong John Vert) & just about shit myself laughing. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate this mans comedic genius as well as his brilliant technical mind? Thank you Dave. Deep dives & peeks behind the curtain can be incredibly dry at times but you have such an amazing capacity for storytelling that you somehow keep everything digestible. You're a gem.

[@lastyhopper2792]

Why did you put the spoiler right next to the time stamp 😂

[@sublimeade]

Wasnt comedic genius. Just a funny line

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

The thing that made this story unrealistic? The fact that Dave used a phone book. 😂

[@JohnBayko]

Irony: “Vert” means “green” in French.

[@smokedice]

Yeah, a “small bug” in the kernel could potentially destroy the entire computer and make it unrecoverable depending on where it happened

[@vladislav_sidorenko]

At least it's not lp0 on fire

[@TheFallensChannel]

Small bug? Nah I’m in the repair menu on my pc (alt pc) and I can’t even reset windows does anyone have an idea how to get my windows back

[@smokedice]

@@TheFallensChannel what happened? You might need to install a recovery image on a usb and use that

[@TheFallensChannel]

@@smokedice doesn’t work

[@seansingh4421]

⁠​⁠@@bappo218if you haven’t been up to date, unless you have a system restore image or a backup image that’s where you have to use a data recovery tool because the OS has shat itself beyond repair

[@sysghost]

When Windows installers where simply white text on blue, I used to joke about it: It begins with a blue screen and it ends with a blue screen.

[@larsenvanofferen7747]

the circle of life. it's all blue. thats a meme in itself... "Its all... blue?" "Always has been"

[@jmtrad1906]

You can continue the joke because the background of Windows installation is still blue 😆

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@BrainSlugs83 There was also stuff like Multiedit, Turbo Pascal, Ms basic, clarion... White on blue was kinda mainstream back then.

[@someoneelse5005]

I wanted to like this comment but the number of likes is 384 so I won't :)

[@robsku1]

@@BoraHorzaGobuchul Oh yeah... Come to think of it, I distinctly recall the Text-UI of Red Hat 7.1 Linux installer having white, or lightgray on blue as well. I changed the color theme on QBasic/EDIT though.

[@Barnacules]

Long time no see stranger, I doubt you remember me since we didn't overlap much. I worked in the 3549 super lab in Building 26 and moved down the hallway to an office for 15 years 2000-2015. I believe I filed a few bugs against Task Manager (not sure if it was while you were there) as (jrberg). Nice to see other Microsofties putting down roots on KZbin 👍

[@DavesGarage]

Not Repro! By Design! :-) Sounds like we overlapped by about 3 years! Very cool to have you aboard as a subscriber! If you have any non-earthquake footage or even photos of NT test labs, stress labs, or build labs, I don't have any, and it would be very useful in some of my videos. Please let me know if you do have anything to share by chance. Cheers! And tell a friend ;-)

[@devapramana4665]

WOAH BARNACULES !

[@1blisslife]

Wowsers! Two KZbinrs I like :)

[@neobow1]

Wholesome moment

[@fireballninja01]

you're not the minnesotan jeremy berg right? sorry

[@RobloxGuestNews]

If you remember when BSOD’s didn’t have a sad face on it, then my friend you deserve a medal for using Windows 7 or older.

[@richard-davies]

Bill really handled that BSOD pretty well. Considering the insane amount of hardware and driver combinations there are these days it's amazing how stable Windows is.

[@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38]

@@ts757arse What doesn't Linux work with?

[@JollyGiant19]

@@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38Less and less thanks to hardware manufacturer consolidation but back in the days of the pc hardware wild west a lot of drivers would never be added to the kernel due to the GPL requirements (that’s why Nvidia still has a “proprietary” driver as an offering) or they just wouldn’t at all. Nowadays it’s mostly business software that has specialty hardware or anything phones (it’s really bad there, just like the old days of pc hardware).

[@Oweblow]

“It’s amazing how stable Windows is” Windows 11: crashes 4 times a day.

[@richard-davies]

@@OweblowNo issues here, been running Windows 11 since it launched and I haven't had one BSOD yet, it's been a rock solid OS for me same as 10 was.

[@obinator9065]

@@Oweblowsimply not true, unless you're overclocking or something

[@thatpitter]

“past end of life support” *XP Shutdown sound* P e r f e ct

[@DavesGarage]

Glad you liked that one :-)

[@LRM12o8]

The startup and shutdown sounds of XP are just so perfect, warm and calming. (Whereas any other system sounds from XP and all later Windows versions just annoy me)

[@wishusknight3009]

My son built a relay switch with an arduino that is hooked to a small speaker that plays those sounds whenever it turns power on or off. It was a real riot when we had my old Commodore 64 plugged into it.

[@ahmetmutlu348]

past support. so you mean fukushima was goint to be okay if there was win10 :P fukushima is bad engineering. with bad windows. they needed lots more complex security systems rather then windows xp. :P

[@wishusknight3009]

@@ahmetmutlu348 It is a lesson for all the ages of what happens when you don't run windows update.

[@sysghost]

13:01 - Now comes the question we all need the answer too: Why was the MIPS RISC box firmware screen blue?

[@Rudxain]

Because Big Bang

[@lynthir6323]

@@Rudxain Why is Big Bang Blue?

[@Rudxain]

@@lynthir6323 42 lol XD

[@digicat0719]

blue pretty

[@osinternals]

Because the developers of it said so

[@osominor419]

As a CS major with a passion for programming and computers, this channel is a gold mine!

[@FalseAdvertising0]

Dave, as an IT engineer for 15 years, your stories and history of Windows have been absolutely stunning! Could you please tell us why windows profiles get corrupted? What the heck is going on? Why is this still a thing in 2023? Thanks!

[@vk3fbab]

In the late 90s I was doing a power point presentation at university to a bunch of my programming students. Running 95 or 98. I had inserted a slide that was the image of the blue screen. They all laughed at my crash displaying on the projector. I then advanced to the next screen to their amazement. Tricked even the smartest students.

[@booombasa]

@Hamad Asghar We just put an errect dick-pic in our classmates engineering oral presentation. Teachers laughed it off. The student was fucking FURIOUS. This was over 10 years ago. We never dared to tell him it was us. If i did, even today, he would probably slap me. :) He passed btw. With good grades too.

[@brunch.]

@@booombasa lol wtf 😂

[@compu85]

I once installed a BSOD screen saver on my professors presentation machine. I came back the next day to see if it had been removed, and on the desk were pages of notes where he'd been researching the "stop error". I felt horrible!

[@szponiasty]

and my second choice, even over windows 7, is windows 2000. i've used it for gaming, programming, working, serving my old homepage with IIS then with apache... actually maybe windows NT 5 (2000) was the best Windows Ever.

[@CoolModderJaydonX]

@@booombasa I thought that would be the other way around.

[@robertkopp873]

Actually, the use of a blue screen predates computer era, back to the TV broadcast era. (I was there). It was standard practice to display all blue screen to indicate a faulty video feed. Every colour screen (then) was a cathode ray tube. Every tube had 3 “guns” streaming electrons beams through a vacuum to strike the screen array of pixels, made up of red, blue and green glowing material. It was arranged that a loss of the incoming video drive signal to the CRT would turn on only the “blue gun”. This alerted instantly “the humans”, that the video feed to that screen had failed. Just image the frenzy in the video control room at a broadcasting station when all 12 display monitors turn blue during a live show... There was no Googling for help info in those days!

[@VraccasVII]

Very interesting, thank you for this history lesson

[@mancerrss]

So what would be the standard procedure or solution back then if that happened on a control room in a live broadcast?

[@Dream.of.Endless]

@@mancerrss Turn Off and On again

[@paulstubbs7678]

@@mancerrss seek a new career NOW

[@robertkopp873]

@@mancerrss Absolute panic. Producers shout obscene instructions down the line. Cut to commercial break then, Techs scurrying franticly. If hardware, quick hot swap to an a running spare. If a telco service problem, patch panel to a spare feed. If none of above, drown in whisky.

[@skytechbits]

Taking me back in time Dave 😏 We called it, "Blue Screen of Death" long before the internet existed. As far as printer, or any other peripheral installs, the manufacturers created their setup program to be installed before the printer was allowed to be plugged in so that Windows would not take over with Microsoft drivers. Thanks for sharing your stories. You make them fun to listen to Dave.

[@JehuMcSpooran]

They were still making you do that up until recently. I remember that if you plugged a printer in and windows installed the driver, it never worked. If you installed the drivers from the CD or floppies after, it would still not work. You would have to unplug the printer, uninstall the printer driver and software, reboot the system and then reinstall the software from the disk and plug the printer back in when it told you to. It caught me out a few times when I was in a rush.

[@Soccerdude7330Official]

Dave, you made such a mundane subject a LOT more interesting than I would have expected. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos, you held my attention the entire time and made this IT guy laugh!

[@maltardraco9555]

Blue Screen = Seizure Green Screen = Hard Drive Failure Red Screen = OS Death Purple Screen = VM Death Black Screen = No Power

[@Arranus]

i had a blackscreen before 😥

[@warrax111]

Red Screen = Wanna Cry?

[@boboften9952]

Fly Screen Doesn't Prevent A Crash Either .

[@warrax111]

Black Screen with no beeps = Damn you, PCChips!

[@JohnDavidDunlap]

I once had a dual monitor setup with green on one screen and purple on the other.

[@LimitedWard]

As a Microsoft engineer, I find your stories fascinating! I recognize a lot of the names of people you talk about, but had no idea what they did in they worked in the early days of the company.

[@kcvinu]

Hey, do you know who is responsible for the dull colors in Windows from Win 10 on. The default window title color is white.

[@FPSzky]

@@kcvinu people. people are responsible for the dull colors and flat design on newer windows OS's, the guys at microsoft are just following a trend so it looks good for the majority of people (the same way back in 2009 the Frutiger Aero design was trending)

[@kcvinu]

@@FPSzky Oh I love the Aero glass windows.

[@scotts918]

This dude is living legacy

@@FPSzky "looks good for designers -the majority of people- " FTFY

[@bhumikjoshi3430]

I've always had an interest in these sort of niche topics and hearing about them from the man who built most of them is truly enthralling. Keep on making such content , highly appreciated!

[@deedubs1180]

I've only recently discovered your channel and I'm very impressed with your knowledge and delivery. Thank you very much for posting your videos.

[@PhirePhlame]

Surprised he didn't mention the fact that, on Insider Program builds of Win10, STOP errors use a _green_ screen as a way to remind/differentiate that this is a preview build.

[@n646n]

The guy's last name *did* mean green after all.

[@NazmusLabs]

he does right in the beginning

[@WalnutSpice]

Love how microsoft calls them Program Managers. Are their higher ups MS-DOS Executives?

[@DavesGarage]

Ha... no, but the really old ones are called File Managers!

[@tedjohansen1634]

@@DavesGarage HAHAHAHAHAHAH

[@LangleyNA]

The youngin's be the explorers.

[@SulemanAsghargoion]

The task managers

[@lvrboi92]

@@DavesGarage Thanks for nearly making spit out my coffee! Side note: This is the first video I've watched of yours. I really enjoyed the pacing and delivery style, but subbed due to the flourishing touches and amount of research collected. P.S. Keep up the great job, you're only sure to improve, as time goes on. P.P.S Already set a calendar notification for your live stream (Feb 28)

[@Lynxx377]

Just found out this channel. It's amazing to watch during lunch. I mean, very sophisticated info, but also very warm hearted.

[@jasonlight1670]

Just wanted to say I just recently found your channel and I’m a huge fan of what you do on here. I’m 26 and have been around computers & tech my entire life. I was just at the transition from 98 to XP when I started playing my CD PC games 😁 (XP Pinball was my favorite though) 😉👍🏼 I really appreciate all of your previous hard work to make Windows as awesome as it is today. Bring on the videos, I will watch every single one. & don’t worry, I’m already subscribed and I appropriately give a thumbs up on every video I watch from you 👍🏼 Thanks again, Dave!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

This reminds me of the old BSOD screen saver.. That was fun.. Several times we had people that didn't know it was a screen saver, and would inevitably reboot a production machine that was working perfectly fine just because it was showing a blue screen!

[@L-in-oleum]

That was actually made by Mark Russinovich too!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

@@L-in-oleum Yeah.. I should have remembered that. Mark and all his tools are awesome. Got to see him speak in Vegas at a conference many years ago and his presentation was great..

[@bodgemaster7946]

I have that screen saver on my server. lol

[@victornpb]

I installed that screensaver on a few computers at university, and ppl kept rebooting the computers until it started giving actual real BSOD :') oops

[@matoatlantis]

Hehe, I remember that too. The running prank in the office we had for some time was to do a screen capture of an unlocked computer, hide the icons and make the capture wallpaper. Nobody did this on servers as they were accessed remotely but for sure it was fun on desktops.

[@l3alamiya]

" Impress your friends with a red screen of death "

[@PositiveANegative]

What a storyteller, Dave ! Being so learned and eloquent is actually remarkable and deserves clicking on the subscribe button ! Last time it happened to me, it was a faulty RAM. It took me ages to identify, as I first thought it was a faulty GC driver. It was only when I started to pull out parts of the computer (a little bit out of sheer spite) that it eventually stopped. On a side note, I'm all for renaming them CSoD, for Cerulean Screen of Death ! :D

[@rv6amark]

My goodness, how entertaining can you possibly make the the story of the "crash screen"!!! I am going back and watching the older episodes I have missed, and have found that no matter how mundane the subject matter is, I love listening to your voice and humor. For an old computer nerd like me, this is no doubt the most entertaining channel on KZbin...or anywhere for that matter! I have always wondered it Dave ever watch Computer Chronicles. My father-in-law and I bonded over that show.

[@TheNewton]

Imagine three decades ago how useful this type of clear info would be for what's seen by most as a user annoyance. Instead of smashing keyboards we'd be saying silent prayers to developers for saving the system and our security.

[@DavesGarage]

Well, to be fair, someone still had a bug! It should never crash, and if it does, to me that's a bug. Just a question of whose! So smash those keyboards, but remember - it's probably a driver issue :-)

[@eDoc2020]

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" probably wasn't the best thing to say. I'm sure many people thought their hardware actually was in danger.

[@JB-fh1bb]

As someone who got in to computers just as windows was maturing, I can confidently say that it *was* useful. I may not have prayed to the devs, but I certainly respected them and learned a little bit more about the inner workings every time the system had a problem.

[@perwestermark8920]

@@DavesGarage Need not be a bug. Same thing happens if there is a hardware issue. Like a memory issue or if someone is overclocking past what is safe. The two main reasons are bad drivers (and Windows have had a bit complex driver model compared to at least Linux) and unstable hardware (temperature, timing, voltage stability mainly)

[@perwestermark8920]

@@eDoc2020 Some CRT could be destroyed by wrong timing signals. But the main issue is that a memory corruption could garble the file system data, causing permanent information loss of a way greater scale than the last hours of work.

[@cybroxde]

He tipped his head back and cackled at me in a way only someone truly mad could do, and as he raised a bony finger to point at the sky, that's when I realized that the sky was indeed... also blue. - Thank you very much for watching, see you next time! - A lazier Dave.

[@lepot23]

I've overlooked your channel as a recommendation for quite awhile. Maybe because of the name of it. This particular video caught my interest, and I decided to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did. You're very informative. I really like learning stuff like this. You have gained yourself another new subscriber. Thanks, Dave!

[@parishna4882]

Love the way you regale your stories :) awesome channel Dave!

[@Ratkill]

These scripts are perfect. Supremely entertaining and full of informative momentum.

[@DavesGarage]

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying them!

[@TravisTerrell]

Indeed, very thankful! It's really important for this "ancient" history to be archived, and the stories are fascinating!

[@Chris-hx3om]

Yes, they are, but it's such a pity the narrator can't deliver them without mumbling them. If the diction was better, I'm sure he'd have far more subscribers...

[@Ratkill]

@@Chris-hx3om That might be your speakers or headphones. Generic consumer audio (apple pods, anything that has "super bass") usually has pretty muddy low end response. I have no clarity issues with my DAC/ Studio IEMS, or my smaller 2 way desktop TA2020 system.

[@Chris-hx3om]

@@Ratkill I was listening though a Bose noise cancelling headset, and I have no problem with other channels. The guy mumbles, that's the bottom line. I have to concentrate to understand what he was saying. I don't have to do that on any other channel I subscribe to...

[@Sebazzz1991]

There is a nice article by Raymond Chen on how there was a bluescreen at a `mov eax,eax` instructions. Turns out a computer manufacturer shipped CPUs overclocked by default, causing it to cause defects.

[@allahdoesnotexist3823]

What's the use of moving a value to the same register?

[@Sebazzz1991]

It is used in hotpatching executables. mov eax,eax doesn't block a pipleline, a nop does.

[@matoatlantis]

I thought newer CPUs consider this instruction as nop.

[@SnapshotOfASoul]

I know this video is old, but I used to have a $50 used NT 4.0 machine in my room as a child in the 00s, and it worked perfectly at almost anything I needed it to do. It was incredibly reliable for my writing and I still have the Seanix keyboard on my wall as decor. My only other computer option at the time was a late 90s Compaq Deskpro running Windows ME, which, was very BSOD-prone. We used that until 2006 because XP just outright refused to install on it. Then we got Vista. You can see my track record with real winners for operating systems here! I actually liked Vista a lot, after I took the bloat away from it... I got 7 when it released because it was so well regarded, despite Vista having stuff I really liked about it. I'm on 10 now and satisfied with it. What do you think about Windows adding the Copilot key and eliminating left CTRL entirely unless you remap it manually for W11? What's your favourite OS to use? And, finally, why was Windows ME so error-filled? Have a great early morning :)

[@Cremageuh]

I love this kind of inner workings of things videos. Thank you so much for that!

[@SteveBrecht]

Friendly Giant reference hit me right in the childhood memories. Thanks!

[@hm-bh9ni]

Me to! Were is Rusty and Jerome? Rusty played the flute

[@noobiesmurf]

That FORZA story is the modern age retelling of the saying "you often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it." Could have been avoided with a reboot.

[@igorthelight]

This problem could be avoided by rebooting... Or less testing! The irony :-)

[@artistjoh]

I have been asking this question for decades. Not only has no one known the answer, in many cases the engineers had never thought about it at all, just accepting it to be the case, but not thinking that there must be a reason for it. Thank you.

[@maratb5291]

I subscribe to several computer-related vlogs, but have to say that you are among the top experts at explaining technical issues so they are easily understood. I am no novice at computers; my first was an original Tandy Color Computer when they first came out, and I've built and owned over fifty computers in the ensuing years. I appreciate PC experts who explain clearly.

[@DavidWonn]

OS/2 crashes red Windows in blue I liked this vid And so did you

[@mrrandomperson3106]

TiVo crashes green VMware crashes purple ...ah poo...

[@uwu-zl6tq]

@@mrrandomperson3106 ok

[@georgecopeland5426]

Crashing in red Might seem a great sight Unfortunately for you Red is a fright

[@board7374]

I am having a fucking stroke reading this

[@jackgerberuae]

@@board7374 what you stroking....👀

[@TheRandomSpectator]

This channel is an absolute gold mine. I originally found it from one of posts on reddit (I think it was an ama about task manager?). Thanks for your work, and keep it up!

[@DavesGarage]

Wow, thanks!

[@oadthemoddy9617]

Same!

[@antoniomaglione4101]

Beside the gold mine. I was completing my professional formation with hands-on experience in those years, so everything Dave says, it represent a leaf from the book of my work story past, and an engaging trip down the memory lane...

[@langer24106]

I found him the same way

[@jameskenney5623]

I was born in 80 and got into pc building in 90, I really enjoy these videos because it takes me back to the hundreds of pc's that I built for friends and family with a "special" version of windows 98

[@mathumphreys]

I'm new to the channel, but I always seems to be chuckling while I'm watching. Great storytelling.

[@captainretro373]

“You’ll notice how this scanner build... WoAoow” That moment that the anesthesia kicks in:

[@sheik124]

I've been trying to figure out _what_ he wanted us to notice about that "scanner build" for the better part of two decades...

[@xishootstuffx]

"Career Limiting Move" I learned that term when doing support for Win9x, but we just called it a CLM.

[@pseudoforceyt]

Customer Lifecycle Management

[@jpdj2715]

And, when it happened, did it limit the career of Win9x?

[@RadikAlice]

This was quite fascinating, and you're a good storyteller to boot. Not ashamed to admit, the grizzled old man bit actually got me. That's some good humor, Bill's quip at the conference was too ngl

[@eskwadrat]

Turning 53 today, started my PC journey back in lat 80s with MS-DOS 3.30, I have a true blast watching your videos. Thanks and please bring more interesting stories.

[@rarrawer]

I never imagined I'd get to hear these stories from an actual Windows developer back when I was still using the old pre-10 versions of windows.

[@benjaminr1876]

nice insert of the WinXP shutdown sound

[@langer24106]

I caught that, too!

[@pyrotenax472]

Love your knowledge Dave , and your delivery 👍 Spot on 😎 Greetings from the UK 🇬🇧

[@JusticeBackstrom]

This topic had no right to a video this immersive, good job, Dave.

[@Horde1Blades]

The "Wrong Vert" storyline was pure gold xD

[@DavesGarage]

Thanks! I wasn't sure how people were going to take that, but I enjoyed doing it :)

[@nazarinebeats5521]

I loved it definitely want more of your humour.

[@robertekis2450]

Thanks for your stories about NT. I spent about half my career writing device drivers for NT 3.1 to XP and it's nice to hear some of the lore from Microsoft. After that, Linux was mature enough that my employers wanted to include drivers for that OS as well and I moved to that for a change.

[@machinerin151]

Pretty funny how in Linux drivers are almost all in the kernel and very few kernel panics ever happen...

[@robertekis2450]

@@machinerin151 Oh, the drivers ran at the same priority (ring 0) for both OS's. As you say, the drivers were just built into the kernel on Linux and dynamically loaded for Windows (which I preferred). I think the main difference in Linux having fewer panics was because it has support for far fewer devices (remember how little wireless networking support there was and still is?). Also, I guess there was better testing for releases, although I remember Windows driver testing was pretty rigorous too, but users could opt to allow non-Windows Certified drivers if they wanted. So, Windows couldn't be blamed for all the Blue Screens :).

[@dylanh333]

​@@machinerin151 That's because those drivers are almost always developed, maintained, and tested by the Linux kernel developers, rather than 3rd parties doing this on their own. You compare that with Windows, where Marvell might write a driver for their latest WiFi chip completely on their own, with its own bugs, and if it crashes, it takes the whole OS down with it. Linux also doesn't have a stable driver API or ABI, so each new version (even minor versions) could introduce changes that require a whole bunch of drivers to be updated to support that version. For official drivers maintained by the Linux kernel team, part of their effort with releasing a new version is updating all the driver code to support the API changes in that version. For 3rd party drivers, they simply stop working with the new version, until the 3rd party developer adapts it to work with the newest changes to the API and ABI. Personally, I wish Linux had a stable driver API and ABI the way Windows does, even if it reduced the incentive for companies to open source and "upstream" their drivers so that they could be maintained as part of the Linux kernel. The biggest reason I want this is because in the smartphone space, companies like Qualcomm decide to (1) write their own drivers and not upstream them; and (2) instead of letting their drivers get broken by the next kernel version, they simply only support that one kernel version, and you end up with a device and chipset that's stuck on an ancient version of the Linux kernel for its entire lifespan. Similarly, you might buy a cheap 10Gbps network card with some obscure controller, and it ships with a CD rom with the source code for the drivers for it, as it doesn't have upstream support. You might then go to compile that code into a kernel module, only for it to fail because it uses a deprecated function that was removed in the latest version of the Linux kernel you're on. Trust me, that's not a fun scenario to be in.

[@ionrael]

​@@dylanh333so why Linux doesn't develop a driver API and ABI? It's like doing things the hard way just because you want to work extra

[@dylanh333]

@@ionrael Ideological reasons - to discourage maintaining unofficial drivers, and instead get them maintained as part of the upstream kernel (at least that's why I believe they do it), and to also give them more flexibility to make breaking changes within the kernel, if they want to redesign parts of it

[@the1spyderryder]

Well Dave been a coder many, many, years but your stories and facts are far beyond awesome.

[@troybarnes66]

Finally part 2. It only took KZbin a year to notify me. Love your channel sir

[@TyrKohout]

I'd love to see what the thinking was behind some of the common shortcuts like Win+Arrow, alt+tab and what lead to minimize, close, and collapse buttons around windows. Great stuff, Dave!

[@johngaltline9933]

while not all, for sure, many 'win' key short cuts predate the win key. Crtl+esc does the same thing. I've gotten used to using crtl+esc instead of the win key because I keep the win key switched off on my keyboard to keep from accidentally hitting it while playing games. Also comes in handy if you're using an old model M. Shift+f10 is the menu key.

[@dh2032]

@@johngaltline9933 forgot that one Shift+f10 thanks :-)

[@SodAlmighty]

@@johngaltline9933 Wow, are you from the 90s?

[@johngaltline9933]

@@SodAlmighty No, a decade earlier, I just appreciate the best keyboard ever made. And as said in my post 2 months ago, I turn off the win key on my current keyboard (it has a switch for this) so that it is not accidentally pressed while in a game, causing the start menu to pop up and pull you out of said game. The actual shortcuts also come in handy when writing scrips, and also are very useful for disabled folk. today's standard 104 key keyboard still only has the same 101 unique keys from the point of view of the computer, with the extra keys internally just being sent as a combination of the needed keys.

[@SodAlmighty]

@@johngaltline9933 I didn't mean were you born in the 90s, I meant have you travelled in time from then. A switch to disable the Windows key sounds very useful, but that's no reason to keep it disabled when you're not gaming.

[@Bdoserror]

On top of appreciating these stories for their technical interest, I also appreciate your Canadian easter eggs, like the Friendly Giant exit screen and "in the meantime and between times". RIP Ed Whalen.

[@jeffdickson7434]

Love The Friendly Giant ending!

[@Carstuff111]

I am so happy I found this channel. This is all awesome!

[@myownbiggestfan]

I'm brand new to the channel and the Friendly Giant reference at the end caught me completely off guard. Amazing.

[@casperes0912]

Rumour has it Dave has never blinked outside of making an intentional expression with his eyes

[@plagiats]

Thank you for that!! You're answering everything nerd me was wondering about about MS in the early 2000s

[@RichBensen]

Loved the ending bit. I was born and raised in NJ, but as a kid I would spend the majority of every summer vacation in Ontario with my Canadian mom, visiting her side of the family. Your "Friendly Giant" reference brings back a lot of those memories.

[@theDesignClass]

Love your delivery Dave.

[@funxiobolic]

Been using Windows since the 3.1 days, so it's really cool to hear the stories about how the Windows internals work and their history. Very good content, keep them coming!

[@konstantinosaidinidis3504]

Dave, the way you explain, your knowledge and the content of your channel can be really addictive. Thank you

[@BanduTheGreat]

This is the second video of yours I see. I'm hooked. Keep up the good work.

[@crosstownchord]

I was still chuckling at the Windows XP shutdown music when I groaned at the sight of the “PC LOAD LETTER” message on an HP LaserJet 4 screen - as sole programmer and default tech support in a small organisation in the 90s, a support call for this usually meant that someone had installed their own software and failed to set the localisation to Australia (where we use metric paper sizes).

[@dmirtyisakov8112]

i get the feeling that this is about to blow up

[@DavesGarage]

That would be sweet! Share it, like it, do whatever it takes ;-)

[@vinzzbe]

We could exploit the youtube bug in community tab? :-P

[@grantclap]

Subscribers the moon 🚀🚀🚀

[@notofinterest]

I’ve heard collabs r the way boost a channel. Linus tech tips as suggestion?

[@ctnsolutionsmarketing5647]

Dave, you were there, in the bubble, when Microsoft was behind playing catchup with that new Internet thing. Prime material. Also, I like your transition from bits to pixels, you produce quality work.

[@nyaalilith]

I love when you place the little chairs clip at the end!

[@Pizza4eversf]

I started with ZX Spectrum 48K etc....then Ms-Dos arrived soon. Listening to these stories is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Very kind and compliments for all you did. Grest.

[@tammymakesthings]

I love these kinds of stories, especially how often these things we all think have some profound significance actually turn out to have very mundane reasons, or even no particular reason. (Or, when nobody can remember the reason, and the answer becomes “it’s just that way, and we don’t know why”.) Thanks for a great video - can’t wait for more.

[@dschmkd]

I need more Dave's Garage storytelling in my life! I love this kind of content, and especially since i'll be transitioning into writing & testing & maintaining code full time soon. Happy to see the channel is starting (continuing?) to do live streams. Your experience and stories are a goldmine. Crossing my fingers that this channel exists well into the future.

[@kevinmiles5770]

WOW, you blew me away at the end of this video post with your reference to the show "The Friendly Giant." oh and your video post was very informative for this old Mac tech support guy. thanks Dave.

[@alQamar79]

Oh man that was sooo interesting. Thank you so much walking the extra mile for finding the answers.

[@gandihellfish]

With age and wisdom, and several IT-projects later I've learnt one thing. Reasons for certain colors or naming schemes tend to be completely random and often based on the workers current mood or humor. No other reason, no giant conspiracy or deep processed thought. "I had skittles for lunch, so I'll name this variable in the kernel "skittle""

[@e3rd922]

I mean in general if we take a look at the history of science you could say the same thing about the naming schemes.

[@Chloe-ju7jp]

@@e3rd922case in point: sonic hedgehog

[@mg8849]

Dave, you are a breath of fresh air and I appreciate your disclaimer about not selling stuff and how you are just doing it to story tell and educate. You are a rare dude. Thank you for the info, sir. Although I may not understand it all, I appreciate the presentation.

[@davidboop3550]

Your videos are super entertaining, liked and subscribed. Hope you have a great Christmas and all followers and viewers have a good Christmas and holiday as well.

[@SteelRatVT]

Such an obscure explanation, and I love it!

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

Hehe, when talking about Gates' reaction to the on-stage Win98 BSOD and him smiling... well, he was an actual developer himself. He knows as well as any of us that, really, it's just amazing anything ever works at all, not that it breaks. People don't give computers and software enough credit. Where else in the entire history of humanity have we built something with, say, a billion switches, flipping a few billion times per second, packed into a square inch of space, where one single mis-timed flip can cascade to total failure of the entire system, and the primary way it is worked with is through a dozen layers of abstractions? It's like repairing a car the size of a flea. While it's on the moon. With moon-length chopsticks. And we make it WORK sometimes? Frankly baffling. Especially when you're talking about operating systems and saying 'oh, and other people are going to write code which runs on the system at the same time, in the same memory, on the same hardware, and you both have to coexist without killing each other'. I just recently was plagued with some BSODs on Windows 10 Pro. I've been using PCs since 1990, starting with MS-DOS 5.0. I've been through a lot of systems. This is the first time, however, that some RAM just spontaneously... went bad. No idea what happened to it, the system would boot and run OK for days then boom, BSOD. Memtest immediately failed on it. I figured out which sticks they were, and they were a kit I'd installed about 2 years ago. Had run just fine (and passed all memtests after install, I value stability above all else and always do stability tests after major hardware upgrades like that, adding 32GB more RAM) for those 2 years, then just started throwing failures. Memory check succeeded when they were removed and I was able to get them replaced under warranty and am back to 64GB but still feeling surprised such a thing just randomly happened.

[@drtaverner]

Yeah, computers are an amazing juggling act/magic show that looks easy to the end user/audience. Consider that they cannot faithfully recreate music from the C64 because of "undocumented implementation" of the SID chip. Trans. "We made it work but damned if we know how." To me, that sums up so much. "Got it working, do not touch anything, no, it shouldn't, but it compiles consistantly so..."

[@cerulity32k]

Yeah. We literally put lightning into some sand and made it think. Give it some slack. I've been trying to do assembly and operating systems, but there are so many systems you need to remember and study to even have a glimpse of what you can do to talk to the machine, and it's absolutely terrifying.

[@Brahvim]

Forgot, or perhaps I never knew even _Sirs Gate was a developer._ Sad to know you had issues with memory - but hey, at least you had a BSOD to notify you! The last time the RAM on a machine I owned broke, I wasn't notified of it very well. Very lucky you were, Sir! ...yes, that machine used to have too many bluescreens anyway, but this incident occurred long after that issue had gone, after several Windows updates. Anyway, have a good day, _and a good rest-of-your-life!_

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@Brahvim s/he didn't say they were notified easily - that said, bad ram tends to throw form a small pool of typical blu screen codes/given reasons, of course, some of that will overlap with a defective or not-currently-stable cpu core too.

[@neotsz3286]

@@cerulity32k "We literally put lightning into some sand and made it think." I'm saving this.

[@Jinxy_yt]

This guy could read the dictionary and I’d be entranced for hours. High key underrated

[@allthe1]

Love your humour and style! Who knew Windows folklore was as captivating?

[@rdhunkins]

Dave, when I need to use a CMD window, I’ve set it up with a blue background and gray text. Just cause it reminds me of the good(or bad?) ol’ days. I enjoy your stories!

[@kenhia]

You talked about moving the video drivers into the kernel. If my declining memory serves, this happened on build 1109 which was a Thursday (I'm more certain about the day of the week then the build number). To really put things into perspective, at the time there were 8 machines that built NT and I think we still just had the three release servers each with two 9GB hard drives. Lovin' your channel...pretty nostalgic for me.

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

I love the blue screen. Way way back, I actually had the Windows 95 registry patch. No idea how or where I got it.

[@artsolano6762]

I always wondered about this. thanks so much for this background story! I always loved the AmigaOS voodoo meditation error screen.

[@pierre-huguesmichot4905]

thanks for all the things I learnt in your videos I happened to stumble upon. everything is plain, clear and very organically explained. I mumble a lot when I come to explain something I know and understand in my heart and desire to share, and so do you. If there was one thing you could want to improve, i'd suggest would be in that direction. Thanks again and fare well. BR from Munich

[@TheAsgaard83]

Stumbled across your channel by accident. Never would have thought that blue screen story (and coming from a dev) could be so captivating. You're a remarkable story-teller. Instant subscribe.

[@plasmar1]

the other day I was thinking, what was the atmosphere like at MS when stuff like Sasser worm or Blaster happen? was there any precautions taken when the whole NSA and Pentagon Furby security threat thing happen??? what was dealing with Y2k like?? anything stand out from those or similar times???? for the last 2 was it taken at all seriously, or made into an office joke; thinking it might be interesting:)

[@DavesGarage]

Y2K was a big push, but the biggest was when we finally got the religion for security (XP SP2 or SP3).

[@Maritims]

An episode about your experience with Sasser, Blaster or Y2K from within Microsoft could be super interesting!

[@plasmar1]

thanks for the reply.... agree with this potentially being a topic for a video:)

[@DavidWonn]

I was working in I.T. on a Saturday when Sasser hit the big company I was at (not Microsoft, though.) Interestingly the XP workstations were rebooting over and over, but the NT4 and UNIX boxes just chugged along, like nothing happened. The funny part was that I happened to be reading an Internet forum talking about this very issue, when I’d suddenly see it happen to my XP workstation. I was very glad that day to have access to NT and UNIX to escape the reboot cycle madness.

[@Maritims]

@@DavidWonn Thank goodness for UNIX! :D (...and NT ;))

[@bengoshi4]

Super interesting!!! Thanks 🤘🏻 😎 Need to catch up on your other videos!!

[@occularmalice]

I was doing a co-presentation with a softie at Tech-Ed years ago. We were doing a server presentation but everything was running in a VM. The demo blue up inside the VM *then* the host bluescreened too. It was awesome.

[@JohnnyMcMenamin]

I can't remember the last time I spoke to Bruce Moreland about his MS escapades but he was truly another tech genius from our college days in the mid '80s. I'm glad to have discovered your channel, Dave, as it fills in the gaps of many questions and thoughts I personally have had concerning Microsoft and its growth over the decades. Thanks for making this channel.

[@RyanDurbin10]

Such amazing stories and I love the way you tell them!! Keep it up we love you!!

[@DavesGarage]

Thank you so much!

[@heavydarkness420]

You are a very inspirational person, sort of like a programmer dad! Thank you for making these videos.

[@odins_claw]

Just found Dave's Garage. This channel severely rocks