WTF?! Somebody designed an experimental instrument that may run a program or perhaps a tiny working system after a Home windows crash. It has many limitations, however the capability to maintain engaged on a PC even after a BSOD would possibly come in useful in lots of conditions.
When Home windows experiences a vital, unrecoverable error state, the working system crashes and shows the notorious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Usually, the one resolution to a BSOD is to reboot the machine and hope no vital information is misplaced. It has been an annoying quirk of Home windows for over 30 years since Microsoft launched the error display with Home windows NT 3.1 in 1993.
Nevertheless, a newly launched open-source utility is popping the BSOD custom the wrong way up, promising customers the flexibility to maintain utilizing their PC even after an unrecoverable Home windows crash. First noticed by NTDEV, the developer of the Tiny11 Windows mod, the BugCheck2Linux instrument can run a “actual” Linux shell after a Home windows BSOD prevalence.
App developer NSG650 explains that the BugCheck2Linux utility can do its magic by “merely” registering a BugCheck callback. In accordance with Microsoft’s official documentation, a driver can use the BugCheck callback perform so as to add driver-specific information to the crash dump file and even reset the system to a recognized working state.
Home windows crashed? Simply change to Linux!
An indication of the Home windows bugcheck callback function, which permits Home windows to run applications AFTER it has a BSOD!
A step nearer to the legendary Blue Display of Doom.https://t.co/w10EOlJeEQ pic.twitter.com/coQQW6eKMr– NTDEV (@NTDEV_) May 15, 2023
The BugCheck callback perform can even run an executable file or a complete, text-based, non-Home windows working system like in BugCheck2Linux’s case. The utility exploits the bootvid.dll driver, a Home windows video output driver in VGA mode in the course of the bootstrap routine, for video output and a PS/2 keyboard driver to ballot for keyboard enter.
BugCheck2Linux runs as a driver inside Home windows commonplace atmosphere. After the BSOD, the motive force begins a tiny RISC V emulator using a Linux textual shell. The developer credit different open supply tasks resembling mini-rv32ima (the RISC V emulator), the ReactOS challenge (bootvid documentation), and the OSdev Wiki for the documentation concerning the PS/2 polling system.
Regardless of offering one thing unprecedented, like a complete working OS after a Home windows crash, NSG650 acknowledges the instrument’s many limitations. The utility does not help ANSI escape sequences. It runs at only a 640×480 decision in 16 colours. It solely works in BIOS mode, so there may be presently no help for UEFI methods. It is extremely sluggish and gives poor keyboard help.