The Windows Blue Screen of Death

This morning I woke up and headed down to my office in the basement. I knew something was wrong when I saw a light as I walked down the darkened stairs. It came from my work laptop and that is not normal. I figured an update happened overnight and that turned out to be the case. Then I looked at the screen and saw the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death or BSOD for short. I only have one meeting on Friday's and so I followed the on-screen instructions to try and get the laptop ready for that 11am appointment. With no luck, I stopped playing before I did some damage to the laptop and went for my morning bike ride.

That last sentence probably is worth repeating: I stopped playing before I did some damage to the laptop and went for my morning bike ride. Often times when experiencing a computer problem it is best to take a step back and think through ALL of your options before proceeding. During my ride I figured that I probably was not the only one experiencing this issue and I should figure out how to check my work e-mail to see if there might be a memo about the problem.

Fortunately there is a website I can go to on my personal Mac. It took some hunting around but I found it and had no fewer than 5 e-mails telling me about the problem and that there is a fix. My company, Sony, also sent an e-mail to my personal e-mail account telling me to file an IT ticket with our internal help system. I did.

This is not an isolated issue. CrowdStrike is a security vendor that a lot of companies use to help secure their computers. Last night they sent an update that caused the BSOD for not just a number of Sony computers but also airlines, banks, and government offices. There is a simple workaround to get your computer back from the dead. The only catch is that you have to have administrator privileges for your computer. Sony has locked me out so I can't delete the file. Should you have administrator privileges, here are the steps to get your computer working again:

1. Boot your computer in Safe Mode. This means letting your computer try to reboot 3 times and then it will bring up a screen that asks you to Troubleshoot or turn off your computer, among other options. Use the arrow keys to select "Troubleshoot." At the next screen, select "Start Up Settings" and choose option 4 or 5 which boots the computer in safe mode. Here are Microsoft's instructions.
2. Once your computer is up and running, open the command-line tool. Usually you can go to the search bar at the bottom of the screen and type "cmd" which will bring up the command-line tool.
3. Change the working directory to the right one using: cd C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike
4. When I try to change directories I get an "Access Denied" error but if you don't get that error you are in the right place to delete the offending file which can be done with: del C-00000291*.sys*
5. Reboot your computer and you should be good to go.

Hopefully this helps you get back on your computer. Unfortunately I need to wait until I hear back from my IT department. Too bad it isn't winter or I could totally get away with going skiing. Instead I will work on something else that I can do with just e-mail and limited network access to the office.