Millions of Windows PCs Worldwide Reboot, Show Blue Screen: What Is the Global System Crash? [Explained]

News7f July 20, 2024

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Millions of Windows PCs Worldwide Reboot, Show Blue Screen: What Is the Global System Crash? [Explained]

Update: CrowdStrike CEO apologizes, system will be restored soon

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the global outage that affected Windows operating systems. In an interview with NBC News, he “vowed” to work with CrowdStrike partners to get services back online. “A lot of customers are rebooting their systems and it’s coming back. It may take a while for some systems that don’t automatically recover,” Kurtz said.

“We are deeply sorry for the impact we have caused to our customers, our guests, anyone affected by this incident, including our company,” he added.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve experienced a Windows outage or heard a colleague complain about an issue that affects millions of people. Windows computers around the world. So what is this issue and why is it affecting millions of computers around the world? Simply put, users are reporting that their Windows Personal computer are randomly rebooting, displaying the infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (BSOD) error. This has affected the jobs of millions, including industries such as aviation, with airlines such as Indigo, SpiceJet and Akasa admitting that their ground operations have been affected, causing flight delays.

We at HT Media Group are also experiencing this issue, with multiple employees across various departments reporting this issue. Our laptops have been randomly rebooting, causing delays in work.

What causes this Microsoft Windows reboot issue?

CrowdStrike has acknowledged that the issue stems from “a bug found in a single content update for Windows servers.” CrowdStrike further notes that Mac and Linux servers are not affected by this. “This is not a security incident or a cyber attack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on X.

“We refer customers to our support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide full and ongoing updates on our website. We also encourage organizations to ensure they are communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” he added.

For a separate, parallel outage, Microsoft also issued a statement: “A configuration change in a portion of our Azure workloads caused an interruption between storage and compute resources, resulting in connectivity errors that impacted downstream Microsoft 365 services that depend on these connections.” Additionally, the company acknowledged that it was working to mitigate issues for affected Microsoft 365 apps and services.

What Are People Saying?

Experts, companies, and others are grappling with the issue, with many expressing frustration on social media. “CrowdStrike decided everyone needed a day off today. Windows machines around the world are going to stop working,” joked X user @lulu_blaugrana.

Another user took joy in posting a meme video, saying, “People in the office are now watching their laptop screens turn blue and getting to leave early on Friday for the weekend thanks to CrowdStrike’s technical issues!”

Indigo Airlines also confirmed that its operations have been affected. The official Indigo X account has asked people to refrain from making booking attempts. “As systems are impacted globally due to ongoing issues with Microsoft Azure, we ask that you refrain from making multiple booking attempts during this time,” Indigo said.

For now, it appears the outage is still unresolved as outage tracking site Downdetector is still showing spikes as of Friday, 2:00 p.m.