After Windows 98’s live demo crash, Bill Gates had Microsoft build a secret test lab to prevent future embarrassment — "That must be why we're not shipping yet."

The Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) is synonymous with Microsoft's Windows operating system. The full-screen error is designed to alert users of a critical system failure related to a specific operation, with the potential to cause a device crash and forced reboot.

Did you know that there are three different types of Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors? The Windows 3.1 Ctrl+Alt+Del screen, aka the screen of unhappiness, the Windows 95 kernel error (which most users consider the blue screen of death), and the Windows NT kernel error, which was authored by John Vert.

Earlier this year, Microsoft decided to change the iconic blue error screen to a simplified black one with the aim of ensuring third-party security software follows the new rules designed to stop bad updates and drivers from taking down the OS. But I digress...

While we've all had our encounters with the dreaded BSoD errors, we wouldn't expect Microsoft to share the same struggle, more so, during an important keynote. But this is precisely what happened while Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was on stage showing off a demo of Windows 98, which was poised to replace Windows 95 a few months later.

The Blue Screen of Death error appeared when Microsoft's former chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, was trying to show off plug-and-play USB support in Windows 98, as highlighted in the video above. "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet," Gates quickly interjected, perhaps in an attempt to save face (via PC Gamer).

While it remains unclear what went on at Microsoft after the incident, it consequently contributed to a 180-degree change in how the tech giant handled its broadcasts and live events.

At the time, Microsoft was in the process of building a facility called Microsoft Production Studios on the Redmond campus. According to veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen, the BSoD error during the Windows 98 demo prompted the company to modify the design of the facility:

Chen says the Microsoft Studios facility is "very unimpressive" from the outside, but all that changes once you step into the building. It is a high-tech broadcast studio, which features "a large mostly-empty black room with a giant LED wall backdrop and lots of television cameras backed by what I’m sure is extremely expensive electronic audio and video equipment".

In a separate post, Chen explained that the BSoD error during the Windows 98 demo occurred because the development team decided to use a scanner they'd bought from the local electronics store at the last minute instead of the one they'd tested and validated in the lab. As such, the store-bought scanner attempted to draw more power from the USB port, causing the Blue Screen of Death error.

Since then, Microsoft has run tests to prevent such an occurrence while recording promotional videos and presentations. And as it seems, "so far, it has worked," added Chen.

The scanner wasn't discarded. It secured a spot for itself in Microsoft's history and "was mounted on a World War II infantry helmet and worn by one of the engineering managers to the War Room meetings for the remainder of the project".

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