Video Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that 20 years have passed since Windows 98 memorably fell over during Bill Gates' presentation at Comdex.

A nervous-looking Chris Capossela, now chief marketing officer at Microsoft, attempted to plug a scanner into a Windows 98 PC while Gates looked on. The intent was to demonstrate the plug-and-play abilities of the upcoming OS. The result was an all-too-familiar Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), and a "whoah..." from Capossela.

Youtube Video

"That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," quipped Gates.

As Windows 10 Springwatch approaches its third week, one can only imagine that something similar must have happened somewhere in a Redmond meeting room shortly before the update was due to be unleashed on an expectant public. The latest version of the operating system, unofficially dubbed the Spring Creators Update, is unexpectedly BSoDing for some testers, we're told.

As folks await the release, comfort can be drawn from the fact that while the world may have changed in a variety of distressing ways over the past 20 years, and the Comdex IT conference itself is long defunct, Windows 10 can still point the way back to simpler and happier times.

By generating a BSoD when you least expect it. ®