The blue screen of death is going green for Windows testers

If there's one color guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of Windows users, it's blue. But as one Twitter sleuth has discovered, the iconic and always alarming "blue screen of death" is going green, and not because Microsoft is feeling festive. The new crash screen was spotted in a recently leaked preview version of Windows 10 (build 14997, to be exact), which isn't expected to be formally released until early next year. Microsoft's Matthijs Hoekstra has confirmed the color change is specific to test builds released through the Windows Insider program, which makes sense. Where bugs and crashes are reported, Microsoft will immediately be able to distinguish between problems with consumer Windows 10 builds, and those found on early, less stable preview builds.

Microsoft already improved the amount of info the blue screen of death conveys earlier this year, adding scannable QR codes to these error messages to help users troubleshoot their particular problem. This new green screen isn't the only noteworthy change discovered in the leaked preview build thus far. Microsoft also looks to be adding a night mode in the display settings, which will reduce the amount of sleep-hating blue light coming out of your monitor in the evenings. A new "game mode" has also been found that will reportedly starve background apps of resources to boost gaming performance (but not your skill level, unfortunately).