Friday Freebie - A Blue Screen Of Death, Courtesy Of Microsoft

We're starting a new feature here on the Playground, called the Friday Freebie. Every Friday, we'll present something new for you, available free from the internet. And we're starting things off with a bang...or maybe a crash would be a better way to put it.

We all know about the (in)famous Microsoft Windows Blue Screen Of Death, or BSOD. It's the screen that pops up in Windows when things go completely wrong, and the OS grinds to a halt. Unfortunately for some, there's just no escaping it. But for many Windows users, this screen is just a distant memory - XP and now Vista have proven to be much more robust operating systems, to the point where many users must no longer bear witness to the dreaded BSOD. And for those, let me introduce you to the BlueScreen Screen Saver.

This screensaver delivers the BSOD right to your desktop whenever you want it - no buggy drivers or crappy shareware needed. It simulates a crash to the BSOD, followed by a reboot of the OS - it can even simulate disk activity to further add to the realism. The cycle repeats every 15 seconds, presenting a different crash on the BSOD each time. Needless to say, this is an excellent way to scare the crap out of somebody - just install the screensaver on a friends computer, and let the good times roll.

Here's a screen shot for those of you not familiar with the BSOD:

This file is actually offered courtesy of Microsoft, and can be downloaded right from them for free (right here). I guess this one falls under the category of "any publicity is good publicity". Then again, maybe they're so confident that XP and Vista users have never seen a BSOD, that this is the only way one will ever cross a your screen. Yeah, I don't buy that either...

Remember, we'll have something new every Friday, so keep coming back for more. After all, you can't beat free.