Microsoft global outage: Memes flood X as corporate employees celebrate 'early Friday'. Best ones

Social media quickly filled with memes celebrating the 'blue screen of death.'

This morning, thousands of Indian professionals encountered a critical error on their Windows devices, indicating a restart was necessary. As reports came in, it became evident that this problem was widespread, affecting workers worldwide and bringing numerous sectors to a halt, including aviation, banking, and financial markets.

The disruption was traced to a CrowdStrike update that impacted Microsoft users globally. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed on X that the issue had been identified and updates were being rolled out to resolve it.

Despite the significant disruptions, some working professionals found a silver lining in the unexpected downtime. Social media quickly filled with memes celebrating the "blue screen of death," with many viewing it as an opportunity for an unplanned break from work.

#Microsoft #Windows #crowdstrike

IT Employees right nowpic.twitter.com/CpW6kbBzKr

— Ex Bhakt (@exbhakt_) July 19, 2024

IT teams in every office today:#Microsoft pic.twitter.com/eUEboCXHPU

— Shridhar V (@iimcomic) July 19, 2024

Thank you #Microsoft

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IT Employees across the globe right now- pic.twitter.com/H0K00iDY1N

— July 19, 2024

employees leaving office for a early weekend after Microsoft crash#Microsoftpic.twitter.com/1GcSNbHT0u

— (@swatic12) July 19, 2024

When their is a global outage but your office laptop is working just fine #Microsoft #Crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/1wIOvH25j0

— SwatKat (@swatic12) July 19, 2024

Happy Weekend, thank you #Microsoft #Bluescreen pic.twitter.com/eM4acwDWKj

— Nuv (@navdweeep) July 19, 2024

People in Office across the world right now after watching their laptop screen turn blue thanks to global crowdstrike outage! #Microsoft #Crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/F0XAkBI0cW

— Vishal Verma (@VishalVerma_9) July 19, 2024

Corporate Employees who were on a leave today.#Microsoft pic.twitter.com/dS20QT9kiR

— Sagar (@sagarcasm) July 19, 2024

IT Employees right now #Microsoft #Windows #crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/1GcSNbHT0u

— Byomkesh (@byomkesbakshy) July 19, 2024

The timing of the outage, occurring on a Friday, led many to see it as an early start to the weekend. On the anonymous networking app Grapevine, Indian professionals shared their reactions, embracing the unexpected disruption to their workday.

Happening now:

Windows laptops have started crashing for several users across India

Reported on Grapevine by employees at Bain and Company, Microsoft, Deloitte and TCS in the last 10 minutes

One user said “The weekend has started early” pic.twitter.com/x5R9xDxwmm

— Saumil Heard It (@OnTheGrapevine) July 19, 2024

Meanwhile, Microsoft said that underlying cause for the global outage has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages are continuing to affect some Office 365 apps and services.

President & CEO CrowdStrike George Kurtz tweets, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed..."