Everyone who’s ever owned a PC has seen it. Or rather, has experienced it. That anger bubbling up as you stare at its useless blue light, reading an error you don’t understand and trying to resist the urge to punch your screen (the most tragic and expensive case of shooting the messenger).

I’m talking, of course, about the BSOD, or Blue Screen of Death. The hallmark image of a computer having a boo-boo, it’s ugly, annoying, and mostly not very helpful, as the error message usually disappears before you have time to figure out what the hell it is.

With Windows 8, however, Microsoft plans on making this famous screen slightly less confusing for consumers. The screen will not feature an enormous sadface, followed by this message: “Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and now it needs to restart. You can search for the error online: (error).”

You have to appreciate them acknowledging they can’t stop your PC from crashing, instead opting to give you the consolation prize of an emoticon and advice which essentially reads “google it”.

I can’t help feeling a certain measure of dread that this well-intentioned screen may walk the same road as “Clippie”, the Microsoft Office “helper” which could almost certainly be linked to a number of homicides.

When your computer is having an aneurysm, the last thing you want to stare at is an obnoxious emoticon. Personally, I think a facepalm would have been better.  

Check out the new image below: