Black Screen of Death for XP SP3 and Vista SP1 Upgrades
Microsoft has warned end users that performing Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 upgrades from copies of XP SP2 and Vista RTM, respectively, that have Onekey Recovery 5.0 installed will cause the operating systems to display a black screen following reboot.
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9.8.2008 Microsoft: Vista's 'Black Screen of Death' Is a Hoax
Many other news sites have just picked up the original article believing that it's legit. We have already updated our original post from last night and are posting the following to correct any disinformation out there.
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12.9.2007 Windows 7 RTM Black Screen of Death after Forced Shutdown Actions
Microsoft has informed users of an issue that prevents Windows 7 from starting after the computer the OS is installed on has been forced shut down.
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7.10.2009 Vista SP1 Application Compatibility Update Fixes Black Screens of Death
With the release of the gold version of Service Pack 1, but also with the maturing of the software and hardware environment orbiting around the Windows client, Windows Vista's compatibility level has continually increased.
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14.8.2008 At the Roots of Windows Blue Screen of Death
Unfortunately for Microsoft, one of the aspects of its proprietary operating system that has grown to become associated by default with the Windows brand is the Blue Screen of Death. BSOD, for short, is the result of a critical system error that will stop the operating system dead in its tracks and lead to a reboot.
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17.7.2008 Black screen of darkness to haunt Vista pirates
Microsoft Windows' infamous "blue screen of death" has become synonymous with an operating system crash or freeze, but that's nothing compared with what users of pirated copies of Vista worldwide can expect from now -- a black screen of darkness.
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12.9.2007 XP Black Edition USA 2007 DVD
Thanks to odeeee and other posters to for this download. No Viruses....Cracks....for the programs it comes with.....Falsly reported as Viruses....Coz they R Crackz.
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7.5.2007 Winstep Xtreme 7.1 - Black XP Visual Styles
Thanks to hwh1226 for this download. A powerful, multi-paged desktop replacement, program launcher and document organizer that can be used as an alternative or supplement to the normal Windows desktop.
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18.6.2007 Windows XP SP3 Brings the Death of SP2 - July 13, 2010
The advent of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has brought with it the proverbial "beginning of the end" for its predecessor, Service Pack 2.
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19.5.2008 From XP SP3 and Vista SP1 to Windows 7 - the Slow Death of 32-bit Windows
Moving onward from Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7, Microsoft is gearing up for the death of 32-bit versions of the Windows client. On the server-side, Window's transition to 64-bit only architectures is almost complete, with Windows Server 2008 being the last server operating system from Microsoft with support for 32-bit CPUs.
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31.7.2008 The death of Wikipedia?
Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that "anyone can edit," was a nice experiment in the "democratization" of publishing, but it didn't quite work out. Wikipedia is dead. It died the way the pure products of idealism always do, slowly and quietly and largely in secret, through the corrosive process of compromise.
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25.5.2006 Death of the apps installer?
One of the great bugbears for developers is the issue of fitting their splendid new applications code to the requirements demanded by applications installers. But could this be about to disappear as a problem? According to David Greschler, co-founder and VP of corporate marketing with Softricity, the answer is a soundly political ?maybe?.
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24.4.2006 Blue death on my hand :)
Black Friday brings down online retailers
Amazon, like many other online retailers were brought down yesterday from eager users trying to get their hands on some limited offers from the sites.
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29.11.2008 Black Xbox 360 With HDMI, Improved Features
Rumors of a hardware refresh for the Xbox 360 began earlier this year, when photos of a prototype console with HDMI output and a revised scaling chip appeared on the Web.
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22.3.2007 The Death of the Windows Desktop Operating System
The death of the Windows desktop operating system is not necessarily related to the non-Windows platform Midori developed in Redmond, or with a Rich Internet Application platform hosted in the cloud. entrustIT, a Microsoft Gold partner in the UK offered a glimpse at where the evolution of IT will inherently take the Windows client.
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5.8.2008 Steve Jobs death has been greatly exaggerated
News outlet Bloomberg gave Apple fans and investors a huge scare late yesterday when it accidentally published an incomplete version of Steve Jobs obituary over its wire service.
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28.8.2008 MS preps black Xbox 360 as PS3 spoiler?
Is Microsoft preparing a spoiler for Sony's PAL-region PlayStation 3 launch on 23 March?
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9.2.2007 German hacker denied entry into U.S. for Black Hat training
Thomas Dullien, a prominent security researcher who has been a fixture at the annual Black Hat security conference, has been denied entry into the U.S. to attend and conduct training at this years confab.
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30.7.2007 Windows 7 Ultimate Black Edition 2009 Beta 32bit
Dont modify this Seven Black Edition 2009 R1 Beta in anyway and for torrent uploaders dont add any viruses.
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11.3.2009 Microsoft presenting at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas
Hi everyone, Stephen Toulouse here. As you probably know, all throughout the year we attend various security researcher conferences all over the world. One of the biggest and the best is the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. And of course the MSRC, as well as a number of other Microsoft teams, will be down there this August.
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11.6.2006 Michael Jacksons death themed malware campaigns spreading
The sudden death of Michael Jackson quickly opened a window of opportunity for cybercriminals to capitalize on.
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26.6.2009 OneCare Death to Make Room for Free Morro Antivirus for Windows 7
A future core antimalware solution will replace Windows Live OneCare, which, considering the price of a one year subscription, has already qualified for an alternative to free security software, come mid-2009.
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25.11.2008 Matrix Screen Saver
Whether you're a newbie or senior software engineer, you want your screen savers to look cool, and this one fits the bill. It emulates the green Matrix code you see in the movie, with characters running vertically down the black background. You can set the resolution, the speed of the falling glyphs, and other options.
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SumoDance Screen Saver
Whose life can't be uplifted by the site of rows of dancing sumo wrestlers? Life's not so bad once you get to know these guys, as rows of them dance, bounce, and stomp to a goofy tune.
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UFO Screen Saver
Watch flying saucers zoom across a virtual cityscape. To preview the screen saver, unzip both files and put them in your c:windowssystem directory. Then go to the Control Panel, click the Display icon, and select the Screen Saver tab.
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Turkey Screen Saver
Adorn your desktop with some turkeys strutting across a simple black background. As the turkeys amble across the screen, they show a little knowledge of what will become of them Thanksgiving day--making for a poignant scene of innocence the moment before all is corrupted. You can choose from one to ten turkeys; the program also offers password protection.
Note that the screen saver shows the vendor's name on your desktop, and although this brash self-promotion can seem a bit annoying, it is tolerable--especially since the program is free, and because it's seasonal, you'll probably want it on your desktop for only a short time.
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Sea Life Screen Saver
Display a variety of sea life, including jellyfish, dolphins, sand sharks, and other underwater denizens. This screen saver works best at a resolution of 800 by 600 pixels, although 640 by 480 is also supported.
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Hubble Images Screen Saver
Take your mind to the heavens every time your computer is left idle. The Hubble Images Screen Saver displays images of nebulae and celestial bodies, captured by the world-famous telescope.
There's no other information concerning the images than the names, so if you wish to learn more about spacey sights with names like "Eta Carinae" or "NGC-3603," you'll have to look elsewhere. But the full-screen NASA photographs will jettison you to places far removed from this mudane, terrestrial existence.
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3D Dissolve Screen Saver
Watch 3D objects in random sizes and colors as they spin and transform. You might not see the same morphing twice. This updated version is smaller in size and has fixed a system key bug in Windows 95B.
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Vista's Purple Screen of Death
We've all heard of (and, quite unfortunately, experienced) the infamous
Blue Screen of Death. Some of us who tested the earlier Windows Vista beta builds had the unique experience of trying out the
Red of Screen Death, which occurred when the bootloader
experienced an un-handled exception (we experienced more than our fair share of these during the early days of EasyBCD development!). And then
there's
Vista's Purple Screen of
Death, which few have seen.
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04.12.2007How to create a Blue Screen of Death
Feeling nostalgic about the Microsoft Blue Screen of Death, which used to plague desktops in the bad old days of Windows? No need to keep those
feelings locked away. This handy guide will show you how to force your PC to recreate the infamous error.
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21.08.2008Apple releases iTunes 8 update to fix Vista blue screen of death
UPDATED Apple has released an updated version of iTunes 8 to correct the blue screen of death problems some users have been experiencing after
installing the software. The issue relates to a driver that conflicts with Windows Vista...
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13.09.2008Microsoft: Vista's 'Black Screen of Death' Is a Hoax
Many other news sites have just picked up
the original article believing that it's legit. We have already
updated our original post from last night and are posting the following to correct any disinformation out there.
Has Microsoft adopted an even tougher stance on piracy? According to recent e-mails warning of new, harsher anti-piracy measures in Windows
Vista, that was believed to be the case.
Australian PC World
printed an e-mail Tuesday it says was sent from a Microsoft representative to an unspecified large Vista OEM distributor. The
e-mail describes a new initiative which renders computers running a pirated copy of Vista unusable by making the screen totally black.
Microsoft was quick to debunk this e-mail warning of a Black Screen of Death. A Microsoft representative told Wired News "the reporter
received inaccurate information," and that the company has not rolled out any updates to Windows Vista's anti-piracy platform.
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12.09.2007Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained
Picture this: Its late at night, youre sitting at your computer playing a game or working on a project when, suddenly, Windows freezes completely. All
your work is gone, and you find a blue screen full of gibberish staring back at you. Windows is dead, Jim, at least until you reboot it. You have no
choice but to sigh loudly, shake your fist at Bill Gates and angrily push the reset button. Youve just been visited by the ghost of windows crashed:
The blue screen of death.
Also known as the BSoD, the Blue Screen of Death appears when Windows crashes or locks up. Its actually
a Windows stop screen, and is designed to do two things: tell you the reason for the error, and to calm your nerves, hence the use of the color blue
(studies show it has a relaxing effect on people). Though Blue Screens are difficult to decipher, all the information you need to figure out what
caused it is right there in front of you in blue and whiteand thats where we come in. Were going to show you how to dissect the blue screen error
details, so you can fix the problem thats causing them.
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01.05.2009Black screen of darkness to haunt Vista pirates
Microsoft Windows' infamous "Blue Screen of Death" has become synonymous with an operating system crash or freeze, but that's nothing compared
with what users of pirated copies of Vista worldwide can expect from now - a black screen of darkness.
In an e-mail to a large
Windows Vista OEM distributor titled "Pirated Vista - A darkness descends!", a local Microsoft representative made it quite clear what Vista pirates
can expect to happen to their unlicenced installations.
A copy of this e-mail was obtained by Computerworld:
Good Afternoon, As of this week, Microsoft have
activated a function in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality'. This is a specific
function in Vista which effectively disables non genuine copies of Windows. Therefore, anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will
experience...
winbeta.org - 11.09.2007
How to prevent Windows Vista's green ribbon of death
David A. Karp: Don't you just love it when something is so notorious
for a particular shortcoming that a new term is invented to describe it? It happened with the Windows Blue Screen of Death. It happened with the
Spinning Beach Ball of Death in Mac OS X. And it happened with the odd-number curse, referring to every other Star Trek film.
Now
it has happened with Vista's own Green Ribbon of Death, shown below.
The green ribbon is basically a progress bar, a screen
element Microsoft has sadly gone to great pains to excise from Windows Vista. But this particular progress bar is the harbinger of death for the
active Windows Explorer window, which, unfortunately, is not uncommon in Vista.
winbeta.org - 18.02.2008
BSoD Takes On a Whole New Meaning
The definition of the Blue Screen of Death acronym BSoD may soon be replaced by a more ominous meaning, Black Screen of Death. In an e-mail sent to
Windows distributors a Microsoft representative laid out the details of what unlicensed Vista users can expect.
"Good afternoon, as of
this week, Microsoft has activated a function in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.' This is a specific function in Vista that effectively
disables non genuine copies of Windows. Therefore anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:
A black screen after one hour of
browsing
No start menu or task bar
No desktop
Please communicate this anti piracy initiative from Microsoft to your resellers --
note this function has only just been activated in Vista worldwide and therefore any issues with non genuine versions will start to arise from now
onward."
While it isn't unusual for Microsoft to impede upon the functionality of unlicensed or falsely licensed copies of Windows,
this seems to be a new direction in regards to their stance on warning users. Typically users of unauthorized copies of Windows have been alerted to
the status of their software legitimacy via Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). The new "Reduced Functionality" approach is certainly more aggressive,
and according to the Microsoft representative, will reduce the functionality of an unauthorized Windows system to the point of being near useless
until properly licensed.
neowin.net - 12.09.2007
Beat those bluescreen blues: what a Windows bluescreen actually means
The Windows Blue Screen of Death is hated and maligned, but it's really just trying to help. Read on to find out what it's trying to tell you.
Dan Warne recently had a cheeky dig at what
some consider to be the quintessential interactive Windows screen the blue screen of death, or BSOD.
Certainly, the unfriendly,
its all over for you vibe which every BSOD gives off has given Windows system faults a bad reputation over time. Personally, I rather like these
haiku error messages...
winbeta.org - 20.11.2007
Daniel Pearson: Debugging a Windows Blue Screen of Death
Daniel goes through the four key reasons why BSODs happen, how Windows allocates memory and how developers need to be careful when setting kernel mode
memory. Daniel then goes through a real-world example of a faulty device driver and how to debug and diagnose issues. Daniel also shows how to read
and write data to an application process, like Notepad using WinDbg.
winbeta.org - 17.07.2008
European Vista and XP to get browser ballot screen too
Microsoft has confirmed that it will be distributing a ballot screen software update to users, in Europe, of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Last week
Neowin reported that Microsoft has proposed the idea of a ballot screen to the EU. European consumers who buy a new Windows PC with Internet Explorer
set as their default browser would be shown a ‘ballot screen' from which they could, if they wished, easily install competing browsers from
the Web. If this proposal is ultimately accepted, Microsoft will ship Windows in Europe with the full functionality available in the rest of the
world.
Read full
story.....
neowin.net - 28.07.2009
Microsoft sued in China for black screen of death
A Chinese lawyer has filed a legal complaint against Microsoft for installing Windows Genuine Advantage on his computer. He has asked the Ministry of
Public Security to file criminal charges against Microsoft.
Dong Zhengwei accused the company of hacking into people's
computers. He said: "I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong
measures.
winbeta.org - 22.10.2008
Microsoft tweaks anti-piracy check for Windows XP
Microsoft has updated software that verifies whether a copy of Windows is genuine in its Windows XP Professional edition, making it similar to the
notification in Windows Vista and thus more persistently visible to users. In a blog posting attributed to Alex Kochis, a Microsoft director of
product marketing and management, the company said it made the changes to the Windows Genuine Notification (WGA) alerts for XP Pro because it is
"the product edition that is most often stolen."
Now when a version of Windows XP Pro is found to be pirated or counterfeit, the next
time a user logs on to the system, the desktop screen background will be black, replacing whatever custom desktop may have been set by the user. This
will reappear every 60 minutes, even if a user resets the screen's background. Previously, this was not a part of the WGA notification for Windows
XP Pro.
neowin.net - 27.08.2008
iPhone and the Death of the Mobile Web
PERSPECTIVE Regardless
of whether or not you bought
into the flash and hype that
accompanied the iPhone's
launch, Apple's newest device
is important not for what
features it brings, but for
what it makes obsolete. The
death knell has been rung for
the mobile Web...
betanews.com - 07.07.2007
Royale Noir: secret XP theme uncovered
Sometime after the launch of
XP, somewhere in Redmond,
someone on the Microsoft
design team was in the
progress of developing
something for Media Center. It
was believed to be too
powerful for public
consumption and forever
archived in the servers at 1
Microsoft
Way.
Devoted
Channel9 member W3bbo spotted
an interesting theme on one of
the people_ready television
commercials airing in the
States. After some dedicated
searching, he finally
uncovered this mystery XP
theme by Microsoft. W3bbo
writes,
"D
uring Royales development (the
XP Media Center theme), the
graphic artists also produced
a black version of the skin,
sans the overused glass
effect. The result is an
aesthetic black skin named
Royale Noir, it even works
with Office
2003.
Since the
skin was never released (or
reached final adjustments)
there are a few issues with
it: some of the colors dont
meet the overall feel (theyre
too purple-ish compared to the
greys of the bitmaps) and the
inactive titlebars are a
little too dark.
..
windowsvistax.com - 31.10.2006
Dreaded Blue Screen of Death mars some Leopard installs
Apple support drones are getting an earful from Mac users who are getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death while trying to update to the latest and
greatest version of OS X. This thread on an official
Apple support forum has more than 200 posts left in 25 hours at time of writing. A large percentage of the writers report getting a persistent
blue screen that forces them to abort their installation of Leopard.
Among the signs that something is awry is the following post
from a Mac user in Australia:
I've just been on the phone to Apple AU support for an hour (around half of that spent on
hold, but on-and-off as they sometimes consulted other techs), and they definitely know of the BSOD issue, said they started taking calls from 9am
Friday as the first (early courier!) deliveries of Leopard were installed, and they've been flat out, "phones ringing non-stop" since then. Implied
that Apple stateside has been swamped (as you can imagine) and they haven't been able to pinpoint the issue causing the BSOD but "they're looking
into it".
It's still not clear what's causing the snafu...
winbeta.org - 27.10.2007
XP Gets Yet Another Life
Escaping the grasp of death once again, Windows XP gets another 5 years of life! While they still plan to end mainstream support for Windows XP Pro on
April 14, 2009, HP says that Microsoft is still giving OEMs the option to install XP on their machines for one more year, until April 30, 2010.
XP Extended Support (strictly security updates; nothing else) will; run all the way until April 8, 2014! They say that they hate extending dates
time and time again, and strongly encourage customers to upgrade to Vista (at least) or Windows 7. But with all these extensions, maybe somewhere deep
down in the heart of Redmond, there's a bit of nostalgia that just can't let go of good ol' Windows XP.
jcxp.net - 07.04.2009
XP's death sentence may not be commuted
UPDATED Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling the XP operating system in June, although the
company is officially denying that is the case...
betanews.com - 25.04.2008
Latest iTunes 8 update causes Vista user headaches
Some Windows users are getting the infamous "blue screen of death" after installing the iTunes 8 update, which some say tracks back to extra
software that is being installed along with the software...
betanews.com - 12.09.2008
XP Pro to receive WGA similar to Vista SP1
Remember how everyone was excited about how Vista SP1 received a WGA update to not block you from your computer?
Well, the same is coming
to Windows XP. (Professional only, though. Who would want to pirate XP Home?)
From the WGA Blog:
With this update to
WGA Notifications in Windows XP, we've implemented a couple of related features that draw on the notifications experience we designed for Windows
Vista SP1. After installing this version of WGA Notifications on a copy of Windows XP that fails the validation, most users will discover on their
next logon that their desktop has changed to a plain black background from whatever was there previously (see below).
The desktop
background can be reset to anything else in the usual ways, but every 60 minutes it will change back to the plain black background. This will continue
to happen until that copy of Windows is genuine.
Also, the user will see the addition of what we call the "persistent desktop
notification." This notification is similar to a watermark but works a bit differently. The image (see below) appears over the system tray and is
non-interactive in the sense that you can't click on it or do anything to it.
As with previous releases, if a copy of Windows fails
validation, notifications will appear above the system tray regularly - and we will continue to have the pre-logon message, the logon interrupt
message and the messages that appear from the system tray.
jcxp.net - 27.08.2008
