Display the BSoD with 3 keystrokes

I recently found this at the Microsoft Support site. It's a "feature" that let users trigger a crash dump for testing purposes.

Step 1: Step 1: Editing the registry

The first thing we'll do is to edit the registry.
To do this in Windows Vista:
In the Start Search box, type regedit. Hit enter. (If you are prompted for an admin password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.)
To do this in Windows XP:
Go to Run. Type regedit and hit Enter.

Now for the editing:
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters if using a USB keyboard or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters if using a PS/2 keyboard.
2. Add a new DWORD key called CrashOnCtrlScroll and give it a value of 1.
3. Reboot the computer.

Comments

[fabsy333]

Is this a prank?
Does it do any damage?
Is it fake?

[person1872]

Its not fake, this was what the programmers used to manually create a minidump file to test as if they got a real error instead of a manually created one

[erikals]

cool I'm going to try this. Can you make your own .reg file and post it? On my old computer, when ever it got a BSOD, it would display the BSOD and reboot itself. Does this trick stay on the screen? Great Instructable

[azbo1]

Windows automatically reboots after bluescreening as default, this can be turned off: press WIN+pause/break to bring up the system properties (or right click on my computer and choose properties), go to the advanced tab, and hit settings under 'startup and recovery'. Under system failure in the new window is the 'Automatically restart' checkbox, uncheck this to prevent the computer from restarting after bluescreening.

Once this has been done the only way to restart the computer is to hold the power button for seven seconds to force shutdown and then reboot as usual

Word of warning here, when windows bluescreens it dumps the ram onto secondary storage, this allows it to re-load your applications when it reboots (similar to the hibernate process). If you use force shutdown to cut the power it will not usually reload (although this may depend on your architecture).

[budabob07]

doesnt work for me on WinXP 32 bit. did everything as said but the key combo wont trigger the bluescreen. any help would be great

[mason0190]

NO! DONT LOOK AT MAI FILEZ!! But what are you doing? NUNYO BIDNASS! *presses Ctrl+ScrlLockX2* Burn after reading.

[Callum Snowden]

 this doesnt work with windows 7...

[pk_excel]

Once, i was playing some game on my laptop and i got really p!@#ed off at it and i hit my laptop and it got the bsod and restarted. I never hit it again.

[esplonky]

wat if u hav a laptop and u dont hav scroll lock?

[munchman]

You should have scroll lock, however it may share a key with something else. For example, on my laptop both Insert and Scroll Lock share the same key. To access scroll lock, I need to press the function key (labelled fn on my keyboard). Your laptop will probably be similar.

[esplonky]

but when i hold down ctrl, i cant use the fn button

[esplonky]

yup, found it, i always wondered what the fn key was and now i found out, thanks! Forrest Hodges.

[samael.g]

nice... i u cant find a wayout

[Derin]

press the button near the power button,it may be labeles with RESET,or if that does not work,just press the power button till it comes off(the computer)

[NT86]

this is a good emergency abort switch if theres no other way to escape what your doing

[mrmedic]

It's creating dump file. In normal situations when you set this up you would also set up a full memory dump as well. We (MS Enterprise Support T3) used to use it when we had a leak but couldn't locate it using normal methods. Usually was hardware drivers. Also be careful on severs it doesn't always work...because of KVM's and such.

[JBizzle]

thats pretty cool buddy. lol. I may never use it, but it nice to know that i can now. :] thanx