So they removed the very specific search engine friendly, but human unreadable code (such as 0x00000f4) and are now requiring me to carry a cell phone with a working QR Code scanner and forcing me to use microsoft (not bing) search support that is specific to their website as a jump point. I am sure that a search for HARD_DRIVE_CRASH will always come up with troubleshooting tips, but I'll have to wade through 5 pages before I get to the advanced topics that I need.
I know there is an argument for making this more readable, but if you are at the level of fixing blue screens chances are you can use a search engine.
Windows 8 started this. They decided to copy Apple's useless OS X kernel panic screen, and so only give you one word of useful information, no error code, no exception information, etc.
Unfortunately the QR code might be an improvement over Windows 8 and 8.1 if the QR code contains more detailed information. There are scenarios where you cannot get to the event viewer (or WinDbg) and need to diagnose a pre-boot BSOD. Windows 8 made this almost impossible without attaching a kernel debugger.
Windows 2000 had the best BSODs because they not only told you the details of the crash but also told you which module caused it. This often allowed you to immediately know what the issue was (e.g. if it was in Creative or Nvidia's drives you'd know just from the filename). You can still get the module via WinDbg but it would be useful to have it on the BSOD itself or even in the event log listing.
PS - I strongly suspect the reason Microsoft removed the module name in the Windows XP BSOD was because they were hurting third party hardware vendor's reputation.
The text code they list in the "if you have to call a support person" map one-to-one to the old hex codes, and a search on Microsoft's site will get you the hex codes quickly if you need them.
The MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH from the screenshot is an 0xE2, for example.
By forcing you to use a QR code that links to their site they can track how frequently BSODs happen and what the most common error codes are simply by reporting on web server logs. Its a way of forcing people to report crashes when they otherwise wouldn't.
I think it's a great idea, in theory (although Microsoft's use of it here is pointless though, as implemented). QR codes are just machine-readable text. Cryptic codes only accessible visually that are time-consuming and error prone to copy by hand? QR codes were designed for this.
Security issues with QR codes, while they exist, should be considered flaws in the QR reader. Doing anything with a QR code by default apart from displaying its content (not the content behind the URL that might be in the QR code, the actual QR code content) should be considered a security risk. And if visiting URLs = ownage for your device, you've got bigger problems.
If little bits of plain text are too insecure for us to handle, we may as well give up on the whole web, never mind QR codes.
Am I the only one flabbergasted at the sheer number of sleep-of-death and BSODs I'm now seeing on Win 10? Two different devices have nosedived in quality, and one's my Surface 3 tablet so MS can't blame the hardware on that one.
I put Windows 10 on an older Dell laptop and it's been a disaster. I like the UI quite a lot but it crashes at least once a day, sometimes more.
Granted Dell says that model (Precision M4400) has "not been tested" for Windows 10, and the problem (surprise surprise) seems to be the video driver. I grabbed the latest driver for my card from Nvidia and it didn't really improve things.
I have been running Windows 10 Pro on my ThinkPad T420s since release last July and not had a single system crash. It goes to sleep when I close the lid and wakes up when I open it. No issues.
While I have other issues with Windows 10 (the shitty "apps", Twitter and Candy Crush auto-installs on my "Pro" version) I am impressed with how solid it has been for me even on an old and officially unsupported machine.
I'm having a ton of issues with an Asus laptop that worked perfectly on Win8 and now every time I open it after sleep it's a gamble if I'll get a BSOD or not with "FAULTY_HARDWARE_CORRUPTED_PAGE"
I had tons of blue screens on a brand new home built PC. I tried everything, memtest86+ passed, every driver I could get my hands on was up to date, even ran driver verifier a few times to narrow down which driver it was. Turns out once I updated the BIOS, every problem went away.
Not on Windows 10, but back in the day I had a piece of software whose DRM would cause a manual BSOD if the DRM's service became unresponsive when a DRM-consumer was attempting to use it.
The BSOD contained zero information about what caused it and said it was an intentionally initiated crash. Figuring out that it was this DRM garbage took quite an effort.
I like the effort to make things easier but it would have made much more sense to just make use of a short and friendly URL which the user can easily share with someone rather than having to take a photo of a QR core.
[+] [-] qjighap|10 years ago|reply
I know there is an argument for making this more readable, but if you are at the level of fixing blue screens chances are you can use a search engine.
[+] [-] Someone1234|10 years ago|reply
Unfortunately the QR code might be an improvement over Windows 8 and 8.1 if the QR code contains more detailed information. There are scenarios where you cannot get to the event viewer (or WinDbg) and need to diagnose a pre-boot BSOD. Windows 8 made this almost impossible without attaching a kernel debugger.
Windows 2000 had the best BSODs because they not only told you the details of the crash but also told you which module caused it. This often allowed you to immediately know what the issue was (e.g. if it was in Creative or Nvidia's drives you'd know just from the filename). You can still get the module via WinDbg but it would be useful to have it on the BSOD itself or even in the event log listing.
PS - I strongly suspect the reason Microsoft removed the module name in the Windows XP BSOD was because they were hurting third party hardware vendor's reputation.
[+] [-] sveiss|10 years ago|reply
The MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH from the screenshot is an 0xE2, for example.
[+] [-] granos|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] j_s|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] berberous|10 years ago|reply
http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
[+] [-] username223|10 years ago|reply
And I am pleased to note that typing "qr robot barf" into DuckDuckGo creates a QR code for "robot barf."
[+] [-] tommorris|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] donlzx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dTal|10 years ago|reply
Security issues with QR codes, while they exist, should be considered flaws in the QR reader. Doing anything with a QR code by default apart from displaying its content (not the content behind the URL that might be in the QR code, the actual QR code content) should be considered a security risk. And if visiting URLs = ownage for your device, you've got bigger problems.
If little bits of plain text are too insecure for us to handle, we may as well give up on the whole web, never mind QR codes.
[+] [-] kabdib|10 years ago|reply
Microsoft is usually pretty good at modeling security threats these days. I'm surprised they did this, it's a bad idea.
[+] [-] Pxtl|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ams6110|10 years ago|reply
Granted Dell says that model (Precision M4400) has "not been tested" for Windows 10, and the problem (surprise surprise) seems to be the video driver. I grabbed the latest driver for my card from Nvidia and it didn't really improve things.
[+] [-] satysin|10 years ago|reply
While I have other issues with Windows 10 (the shitty "apps", Twitter and Candy Crush auto-installs on my "Pro" version) I am impressed with how solid it has been for me even on an old and officially unsupported machine.
[+] [-] Khao|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minikites|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greydot|10 years ago|reply
On my custom built machine at home I've had one BSOD since upgrading to 10 from 7 and that was when it was first released
Our Surface Pro 3s and 4s at work have been terrible though, they've always been kinda flaky with 8.1 and 10; I hate working on them
[+] [-] johnhattan|10 years ago|reply
"If you call a support person, give them this info: Stop code: MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH"
I'd actually like to hear that call to tech support :)
[+] [-] Someone1234|10 years ago|reply
The BSOD contained zero information about what caused it and said it was an intentionally initiated crash. Figuring out that it was this DRM garbage took quite an effort.
This is roughly the 2000 or early XP era.
[+] [-] satysin|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xmohit|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] b0t|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Theodores|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivers99|10 years ago|reply