In addition to the now ubiquitously Blue Screen of Death error, generally associated with a severe system crash, Windows operating systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 7, can also be affected by Black Screens of Death. While, despite the actual color characteristics, both errors are the result of severe problems, the main difference is that Blue Screens come packaged with a restart, while Clack Screens simply freeze up the computers forcing users to stare at nothing more than a blank, dark desktop. Prevx’s David Kennerley has revealed that a third-party solution is available, designed to fix the vast majority of issues that cause Black Screens.

“The symptoms are very distinctive and troublesome. After starting your Windows 7, Vista, XP, NT, W2K, W2K3 or W2K8 PC or server the system appears normal. However, after logging on there is no desktop, task bar, system tray or side bar. Instead you are left with a totally black screen and a single My Computer Explorer window. Even this window might be minimized making it hard to see,” Kennerley said.

Appropriately dubbed Black Screen Fix, the utility is offered for download at no cost. Of course, Microsoft itself, via support services, offers updates and hotfixes designed to resolve Black Screens of Death for Windows operating systems. Obviously, the company doesn’t have a single, silver-bullet solution to take care of all such problems for Windows users.

Black Screen Fix aims to be just that. “It will fix the most common cause we have seen of this issue. Running the fix program is easy under normal circumstances, simply download with your browser using the link above and run the program. However, if you are trying to do this from the PC which has black screen it is a bit more tricky,” Kennerley added.

However, Kennerley emphasized that Black Screen Fix is not a panacea for all black screen issues affecting Windows platform. In fact, the tool is focused on resolving problems introduced by Microsoft with its latest range of security bulletins. “If your black screen woes began in the last 2 weeks after a Windows update or after running any security program (including Prevx) to remove malware during this time then this fix will have a high probability of working,” he mentioned.

According to Prevx, the root cause of the latest wave of Black Screens of Death has been identified as a modification in the Windows Operating Systems lock down of registry keys. It appears that the updates released this month by Microsoft cause certain registry keys to be invalidated, a move that, in its turn generated Black Screen of Death errors.