Replying to a message of Rich Gauszka to Frank Haber:

 >> The GUI utils I just downloaded are double or triple the size of the
 >> versions I had on my disk from late '06 and early '06.  It's either
 >> EXE compression foregone, or something more nefarious, and I'm not
 >> qualified to judge.  But that doesn't keep me from starting a rumor.

 RG> 

 RG> And they actually added the BSOD screensaver

 RG> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen
 RG> .mspx

 RG> One of the most feared colors in the NT world is blue. The infamous
 RG> Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) will pop up on an NT system whenever
 RG> something has gone terribly wrong. Bluescreen is a screen saver that
 RG> not only authentically mimics a BSOD, but will simulate startup
 RG> screens seen during a system boot.

 RG>       • On NT 4.0 installations it simulates chkdsk of disk drives
 RG> with errors!

 RG>       • On Win2K and Windows 9x it presents the Win2K startup splash
 RG> screen, complete with rotating progress band and progress control
 RG> updates!

 RG>       • On Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 it present the XP/Server
 RG> 2003 startup splash screen with progress bar!


 RG> Bluescreen cycles between different Blue Screens and simulated boots
 RG> every 15 seconds or so. Virtually all the information shown on
 RG> Bluescreen's BSOD and system start screen is obtained from your
 RG> system configuration - its accuracy will fool even advanced NT
 RG> developers. For example, the NT build number, processor revision,
 RG> loaded drivers and addresses, disk drive characteristics, and memory
 RG> size are all taken from the system Bluescreen is running on.

 RG> Use Bluescreen to amaze your friends and scare your enemies!

 RG> Bluescreen runs on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows
 RG> Server 2003 and Windows 9x (it requires DirectX).

There's a similar screensaver for Linux that displays the BSOD, the Linux kernel
panic screen, the OS/2 error trap crash and a crash screen from Solaris.

FWIW, 35 or so years ago we had a program that we (the computer operators)
had ginned up that displayed catastrophic system failure messages on the
Honeywell 6000 console printer (which was a modified IBM Selectric typewriter).
We'd slip the card deck into the reader with a bunch of other jobs when a new
operator was sitting at the console.  This is not something new ...

--- FleetStreet 1.19+