Millions of Windows PCs face Blue Screen of Death error: What's the reason, what's the fix?

A major technical issue has affected millions of Windows computer systems resulting in abrupt shutdown and restart. Several users are seeing the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on their Windows computers, and it has not just affected individuals, but also businesses who were using Microsoft Windows computers. Additionally, Microsoft 365 apps and some of its services are facing outages globally. But what caused this sudden Blue Screen of Death on millions of Windows computers worldwide and what can be done to keep using your Windows computer or laptop? Read to know.

What’s the cause of the Bluescreen of Death, Microsoft apps/service outage?

The probable reason why millions of users are facing BSOD errors is because of a CrowStrike update. For the unversed, CrowdStrike is an American cybersecurity firm that works with Microsoft and it has identified the issue and is working on a fix. It’s said to have reversed the changes that it did.

“CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor. Symptoms include hosts experiencing a budcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon Sensor. Our Engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket,” stated CloudStrike.

It is worth noting several Microsoft apps and services are inaccessible.

Microsoft has also clarified the issue. As per Microsoft’s Service Health Status, the root cause of the error is a configuration change in a portion of Azure backend workloads that caused an interruption between storage and compute resources.

“Preliminary root cause: A configuration change in a portion of our Azure backend workloads, caused interruption between storage and compute resources which resulted in connectivity failures that affected downstream Microsoft 365 services dependent on these connections.”

What to do to keep using your Windows PC?

While CrowdStrike and Microsoft are working on a fix, what you can do is boot into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.

Then Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.

Look for the C-0000291*.sys and delete it.

Then, boot your PC in the normal mode and it should start.

As for the apps and services, it’s best to not use them immediately as they may get you back to BSOD. We’ll have to wait for Microsoft to work on a fix in the backend. Meanwhile, users can follow the Microsoft 365 Status X handle to know more about the fix and the reason. You can also get back to this article to know if the problem has been fixed.