While Windows 8 was widely expected to have a black screen of death, the developer build released yesterday has revealed that Redmond has opted to stick with the historic blue. It does, however, come with a peculiar twist. Rather than inundate people (who hopefully remembered to save their work) with a breakdown of why their computer stopped working, it seems Microsoft has chosen to take things in a more compassionate direction.

Unlike the classic, wordy blue screen of yore, the latest version instead makes a sad face at the user. In addition to flashing that large frown, the new BSoD also provides some key search terms just in case the user feel likes digging into what just happened.

Users are given a few seconds to write it down or commit it to memory before before the PC automatically restarts, and voila: it’s back to business.

It’s a step in the right direction, as the classic blue screen was nigh unintelligible to most users. This latest version manages to make the process a little less headache-inducing, but I (perhaps naively) long for the day when Microsoft can tell me in plain English why my computer just failed.