Black Screen of Death is real but not the fault of Microsoft or Windows Update
Have you experienced the Black Screen of Death on your Windows PC yet? The chances are that you haven’t because the issue seems to only be affecting a relatively small number of people. It is, however, a problem, but no one seems sure who or what is to blame. It seems that, contrary to what has been reported, it isn’t happening as a result of the latest Windows Update.
The Black Screen of Death was first reported in a blog post by U.K.-based security firm Prevx on Nov. 27. It explained that the problem was affecting the full range of Windows versions, and claimed that it was being caused by the latest round of patches from Nov. 10. This is how Prevx explained the situation:
After starting your Windows 7, Vista, XP, NT, W2K, W2K3 or W2K8 PC or server the system appears normal. However, after logging on there is no desktop, task bar, system tray or side bar. Instead you are left with a totally black screen and a single My Computer Explorer window. Even this window might be minimized making it hard to see.
Helpfully, Prevx was offering a Black Screen Fix tool which seems to have helped a number of the people being affected by this issue.
However, the story then spread wider, with more mainstream blogs and tech sites picking up on it over the last couple of days. That led to Microsoft investigating the problem. However, Microsoft has flatly denied its latest Windows Update have caused the issues, with Christopher Budd, Microsoft security response communications lead, stating:
Microsoft has investigated reports that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that that are resulting in system issues for some customers. The company has found those reports to be inaccurate. Our support organization is … not seeing this as an issue.
Prevx then got cold feet and backtracked on its earlier claims, saying:
Having narrowed down a specific trigger for this condition we’ve done quite a bit of testing and re-testing on the recent Windows patches including KB976098 and KB915597 as referred to in our previous blog. Since more specifically narrowing down the cause we have been able to exonerate these patches from being a contributory factor.
We apologize to Microsoft for any inconvenience our blog may have caused. This has been a challenging issue to identify. Users who have the black screen issue referred to can still safely use our free fix tool to restore their desktop icons and task bar.
The problem still exists, it’s just that Microsoft isn’t to blame. For once. Microsoft is instead blaming malware for the behavior being exhibited by some computers.
While this won’t help people inflicted by the problem – who I can only suggest keep their machines well-protected and always up-to-date – it should caution people not to always blame Microsoft when something goes wrong with their machines. Sure, the company probably is responsible nine times out of 10 but it’s not always so cut and dried.
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