It's fascinating to see all the other theories here. It's the exact same information, here's the hex code list with system error codes: https://msdn.microsoft.c

It's fascinating to see all the other theories here. It's the exact same information, here's the hex code list with system error codes: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994433.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994433.aspx My favorite is 0xDEADDEAD A BSOD isn't interactive, the only thing you can do is search for the error code. Even if users copy down and type the hex code correctly (not at all a given), the search results might be a random ten year old blog post or information about a different version of Windows. The QR Code takes you to an official help page that gives updated, version specific instructions a normal computer user could follow: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/troubleshoot-blue-screen-errors http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/troubleshoot-b... I've troubleshot BSOD errors over the phone with relatives. Plain-text error message are a welcome improvement over hex codes.