Change the BSOD Color Settings in Windows XP

When Windows crashes, it shows the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD). The BSOD shows the error that possibly caused the crash in white foreground and blue background (this is why its called BSDO). If you want to change the foreground and background colors of the BSOD, then you can do so easily. Here is how :

Note : You will need administrator level access to follow these steps.

  1. Press the key combination Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog.
  2. In the Run dialog, type the following and press the Enter key.
    notepad %systemroot%system.ini

    Change BSOD Color in XP

  3. You will see the Notepad window open with system.ini loaded. Under the [368enh], add these two lines.
    MessageBackColor=2
    MessageTextColor=F

    Change BSOD Color in XP

  4. This would set the background color as 2 (green) and the foreground text color as F (bright white). You can choose the background and foreground colors from the list below.
    Color Code Color Code
    Black 0 Gray 8
    Blue 1 Bright Blue 9
    Green 2 Bright Green A
    Cyan 3 Bright Cyan B
    Red 4 Bright Red C
    Magenta 5 Bright Magenta D
    Yellow 6 Bright Yellow E
    White 7 Bright White F
  5. After you are done editing the file, save it by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S. You can also save the file by choosing from the menubar File → Save.
  6. Restart your computer. Next time whenever your Windows would crash, it will show the changed colors for the BSOD screen.