The latest Insider Preview build of Windows 10 (build 14316) has tweaked the Blue Screen of Death to include the most moddest of cons: a QR code.
Now, instead of scrambling to write down the CRYPTIC_ERROR_CODE, you can just whip out your smartphone and scan an on-screen QR code. If you don't have a phone or QR scanner to hand, the new Insider Preview BSOD also includes a help page URL that you can try to remember (or take a photo of).
In theory it's a pretty neat idea. In practice the feature isn't quite there yet: currently the QR code (and the written URL) always points you to the same "dealing with blue screen errors" page, irrespective of the actual error code. Presumably future builds of Windows 10 will have QR codes and URLs that are a little more targeted. Maybe that empathetic frowny face will be replaced with a variety of different emoji, depending on the crash, too.
Windows 10 build 14316, released six days ago, is the same build that introduced Bash support, the first public preview of the Skype UWP app, and completely redesigned emoji.
Adding QR codes and URLs to BSODs could be problematic in the long run. One of my favourite IT horror stories of all time involves a QR code: Heinz, in a fit of futurism, put a QR code on its ketchup bottles in Germany, to help people enter a competition—but then it committed the cardinal sin of letting the domain name registration lapse. A hardcore porn site then picked up the domain name... and the rest is history.
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