Windows 11 gamers will be glad to see the back of this nasty BSoD bug

Microsoft is slowly making progress fixing Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) errors, with another one that could have caused gamers to suffer having been cured in Windows 11.

This fix arrives with the latest preview update for March (KB5011563), meaning it’s still in testing, but the changes will come through in April’s release version of the patch (assuming all goes well with that testing, of course).

As spotted by Hot Hardware, the patch notes state that KB5011563 “addresses a stop error (0xD1, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) in the DirectX kernel component.”

A stop error is a BSoD, meaning it completely halts the PC in its tracks, and is a crash that requires a reboot to recover. As the message states, the problem pertains to DirectX – and some kind of driver issue, although it’s expectedly vague as to what might have actually gone wrong – and hence this could be an error that crops up when you’re playing games in Windows 11 (or trying to).

Patch KB5011563 fixes a bunch of other bugs, as well as adding something into the mix for Windows 11, namely the ability to display multiple high-priority toast notifications simultaneously – up to three of them, in fact.

Analysis: Windows bugs can still trigger the blues

Thankfully in modern times, Windows sees a lot fewer BSoD errors, but there are clearly some still floating around – we witnessed a BSoD bring one of our PCs to a crashing halt as recently as last month (albeit that was Windows 10).

Another BSoD being squashed is obviously good news, though as noted, Windows 11 users won’t actually get this fix until next month, as part of the monthly cumulative update for April. That said, KB5011563 is available to grab right now as an optional update if you search for it manually (in Windows Update), but as with anything that’s in testing, installing it could have unwanted side-effects.

You may recall that Microsoft was going to change the color of these crash screens from blue to black last year, but decided against that move later in 2021, so BSoDs will remain blue going forward. But with any luck, they’ll fade more and more into the background as Microsoft fixes errors like this one.

Check out our guide to Windows 11 problems and how to fix them

Via PC Gamer