Microsoft operating systems have had a reputation for frequent crashes, which can cause the system to freeze and become unusable until it is rebooted. A crash is sometimes referred to as a system failure, bug check, stop error, or blue screen of death (for the blue screen that is displayed after the crash). System failures were especially common in the days of Windows 3.51 and Windows 9x. Fortunately, Microsoft has steadily improved in this area and now Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 are two of the most stable operating systems available. Nevertheless, Microsoft hasn’t been able to completely rid itself of occasional crashes due to bugs in the OS or bad third-party drivers.

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