One of the hardest elements to interpret in Windows is the error message that appears on a classic blue screen. Those of us who have spent years in front of a computer are already familiar with the operating system's main tantrums, but Microsoft knows it needs to provide more information in a simpler way, and its latest move is to incorporate QR codes into the BSODs of the latest Windows 10 build. Ideally we never see one of these codes, but if something goes wrong, at least there's a starting point.
Fire. Explosions. Blue screen. There are times when we encounter strange messages like IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, while other times we receive numbers that could be described as digital vomit. To be honest, Microsoft never had the ability to report errors coherently. Between "fatal exceptions 0E" and the famous "has detected a problem and must close", the average user feels that the computer was manufactured on Mars, and as if that weren't enough, Microsoft's help forums are a real disaster, where an MVP named "Ganesh H." (no offense) gives a completely canned response, which boils down to "restart your computer".
The Redmond giant has decided to change that situation a bit with the help of QR codes incorporated into the blue screens in Windows 10. Its latest build 14316, which we recently talked about, no longer leaves the user abandoned with a smiley face and a cryptic error message, but rather presents both the code and a URL address... which you obviously have to visit on another system that isn't hung. We won't deny that the mechanism is interesting, but after some testing it's necessary to recognize that Microsoft must polish the other end. The help page is so basic that it hurts the eyes, and instead of presenting precise information about the error, it's the user's job to click through each of the options that appear there.
In other words, the QR code on Windows 10 blue screens doesn't help much for now. At the same time, some colleague sites have explored the possibility that this QR code could become a security threat. Imagine for a moment a malware capable of imitating a blue screen, and presenting a QR code that leads to malicious content to deepen the infection, or even worse, transfer it to the mobile device. I guess Redmond will have thought about this, but we must be careful.
Ars Technica
