How to Force a Blue Screen in Windows

Reviewed by Luigi Oppido

Last Updated: October 24, 2024

It is extremely rare that you would ever want to force the Blue Screen of Death, or BSoD, on your PC. The Blue Screen of Death is an error screen in Windows that signifies a fatal system error and intentionally forcing your computer to bring up the BSoD can cause serious problems with your computer and even loss of data. However, there are some advantages to forcing this infamous screen when attempting to test the capabilities of a remote management and recovery tool. Before proceeding, it is very important that you save your work because the only way to unlock your screen once you have forced the BSoD will be rebooting your computer.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Editing the Registry

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Save your work. Forcing a Blue Screen on your computer will cause you to lose any unsaved changes, therefore it is very important for you to save anything you were working on before continuing.
Search "regedit." To do this, go to Start and then enter it in the search bar without the quotation marks. If you have Windows XP, go to "Run," type "regedit," and then press "Enter."

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Select the following path in the Registry Editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\i8042prt\Parameters if you are using a PS/2 keyboard. If you are using a USB keyboard, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters).^{[1]
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- You can tell whether you have a PS/2 or USB keyboard by looking at the plug that connects it to your computer. A PS/2 keyboard will have a round plug whereas a USB keyboard will have a rectangular plug.
You can do this by selecting "Edit" and then going to "New." Enter "CrashOnCtrlScroll" without the quotation marks and make sure the value below it is set to 1. Your default may already be set to this option.^{[2]
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Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer in order for the changes to take effect.
You can do this by holding down the furthest most right "Control" key then pressing the "Scroll Lock" key twice. Once this is completed, a blue screen should pop up. If you are using Windows 8 or later, the Blue Screen is slightly different. Rather than lines of code, Windows 8 (and later) presents you with a sad emoticon and an error message. This, however, is still the BSoD.^{[3]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Task Manager

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Forcing a Blue Screen on your computer will cause you to lose any unsaved changes, therefore it is very important for you to save anything you were working on before continuing.
Open the Task Manager. This method will only work for Windows 8 and lower. You can open Task Manager by right-clicking on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen and finding "Start Task Manager" in the drop down menu that appears.
If you are prompted for an administrator password, enter the password and click OK.
Once you have done so, select "End Task." (be sure you press processes from all users)
In this dialog box, tick the box next to "Abandon unsaved data and shut down" and click "Shut Down."
You can get rid of the blue screen by restarting your computer.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

PowerShell

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1
Save your work. Forcing a Blue Screen on your computer will cause you to lose any unsaved changes, therefore it is very important for you to save anything you were working on before continuing.
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Run PowerShell as An Administrator
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Wait for it to load and type "wininit" and hit enter.
You can get rid of the blue screen by restarting your computer.

Community Q&A

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Can I do this in a safe way?

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It is safe, unless you have unsaved work or, in rare circumstances, your startup files were corrupted in the process. You can also do it in a virtual machine if you want to not damage your own computer.

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What happens if I end csrss.exe and can't boot again?

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It sounds like the OS was doing a major file transfer, and the files got corrupted. The only thing you can do is reinstall the operating system.

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How do I do it without being an admin?

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You can't, it is only an admin thing.

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You can make a bat file with content "taskkill /f /im csrss.exe" and save it to anything.bat. Then when you want a BSoD, you must run it as administrator. Enjoy your BSoD!

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If you are running Windows 8 or up, you can terminate DCOM Server Process Launcher also, which also causes a BSoD.
- Note in Windows 8.1 or up, if you terminate csrss.exe, it will not cause a BSoD, it will just hang the system, though it will still simulate a computer crash.
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Warnings

Make sure you are editing the right path in the Registry. Editing or deleting the wrong entries may cause stability problems or even prevent you from booting in the first place.

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In Windows 8 and up, doing so will prevent Fastboot from working on the next boot and make Windows to load slower.

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The registry edit only works for Windows 2000 and up for PS/2 keyboards and for the following if using a USB keyboard:^{[4]
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- Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 with KB 244139 installed or with Service Pack 2 installed.
- Windows Vista or Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 with KB 971284 installed or with Service Pack 2 installed.
- Windows 7 or above installed.
  - Performing this using a USB keyboard on Windows XP will not work.
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