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Microsoft users worldwide are grappling with the infamous “blue screen of death” (BSOD) following a significant outage caused by a problematic update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. This widespread technical issue has not only disrupted Microsoft services but has also impacted various sectors, including airlines, banks, and media outlets.
The troubles began when Microsoft acknowledged an issue with its Windows 365 Cloud PCs, which was triggered by a recent update to the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor software. The company promptly advised users to restore their systems to a state prior to the update released on July 19, 2024, to mitigate the BSOD errors.
In its communications, Microsoft confirmed that users might encounter a bug check, leading to a frustrating cycle of system restarts. Reports indicated that some users managed to recover their systems by attempting multiple restart operations on affected virtual machines.
CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, clarified that the issue stemmed from a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts, emphasizing that this was not a security incident or cyberattack. He reassured customers that the problem had been identified and a fix was underway, although Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.
The outage also coincided with a separate disruption of Microsoft’s Azure services, which had previously impacted its cloud offerings across the central U.S. region. Microsoft clarified that these issues were unrelated, with the Azure outage being resolved earlier.
As users continue to face challenges, Microsoft has provided guidance on troubleshooting the BSOD, including restoring systems to previous states and utilizing the Azure Portal for virtual machine restarts. The company is actively working to assist affected customers while CrowdStrike continues to address the underlying software issues.