There is no mystery over who wrote the Blue Screen of Death

The authorship of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Microsoft Windows has been the subject of confusion, with claims of a 30-year mystery surrounding it. However, there are three distinct blue screens, each attributed to different authors. The first is the Windows 3.1 Ctrl+Alt+Del screen, which was written by Steve Ballmer. This screen indicates that an application has stopped responding but does not represent a true BSOD, as Windows 3.1 did not have a BSOD; instead, it displayed a black screen in case of a crash.

The second screen is from Windows 95, which is often considered a BSOD but allows users to attempt to continue after an error. Raymond Chen finalized the text for this version, although he did not create the initial version. The third and true BSOD is from Windows NT, authored by John Vert, indicating a critical system failure that cannot be recovered.

In summary, the confusion arises from the existence of multiple blue screens across different Windows versions, each with its own author and context. The Windows 3.1 screen was written by Ballmer, the Windows 95 screen was finalized by Chen, and the Windows NT BSOD was authored by Vert.