What to do if your computer is affected by the global IT outage

The Microsoft Corp. Windows Recovery screen displayed at a currency exchange kiosk during a worldwide systems outage at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China, on July 19, 2024. Computer systems failed across the globe on Friday, taking down services at airlines, banks and the London Stock Exchange after a widely used cybersecurity program crashed and Microsoft separately reported problems with its cloud services. — Bloomberg

An outage that crippled businesses around the world turned many Microsoft computers into bricks overnight.

That means a lot of people are seeing the blue screen of death as computers continually try to reboot. The issues stemmed from a faulty software update delivered to Microsoft devices and servers from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that mainly works to help protect bigger companies from attacks.