Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) faults are forcing Windows to abruptly shut down or restart with messages such as “Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.” These errors are affecting Microsoft Windows users worldwide.
The problem was discovered this morning and was brought on by a recent update from the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. In addition to acknowledging the issue and rolling back the upgrade, CrowdStrike gave consumers a four-step guide on how to get back into their Windows PCs.
A few hours after the initial reports, CrowdStrike’s engineering team posted an update on their subreddit, r/crowdstrike, identifying a content deployment as the cause and confirming they have reverted the changes.
The update has significantly impacted enterprise customers, with reports of thousands of affected devices, including critical servers and SQL nodes. IT departments are mitigating the damage by removing CrowdStrike-related files.
This incident highlights the risks of automatic updates for security software, with calls for more rigorous testing and staged rollout policies. CrowdStrike will provide further updates and a permanent fix.
For users experiencing BSOD errors, CrowdStrike provided these steps to regain access to Windows PCs:
- Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.
- Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.
- Locate and delete the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”.
- Boot the host normally.
Microsoft stated that the recent CrowdStrike update caused the BSOD errors affecting companies, banks, and government offices globally. In India, airlines like Akasa Air and IndiGo informed customers about the issue on X (formerly Twitter).
The issue has disrupted services worldwide, including airline and railway operations, supermarkets, hospitals, and major news networks. A fix release update is anticipated soon.