The Recent Windows 10 Update Is Breaking Webcams

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Did the recent Windows 10 Anniversary Update break your webcam? Don't sweat it, Microsoft is working hard on a fix that will be out late next month. Don't start your whining either, Windows 10 has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any version of Windows.*


If you've installed the recently-released Windows 10 Anniversary Update and noticed your USB webcam is acting screwy, you're not alone. It seems the decision to prevent them from using the popular MJPEG and H.264 encoding processes in favor of the NV12 and YUY2 formats is affecting far more devices than Microsoft anticipated, causing millions of cameras to crash.

(*except for Windows 10 users with webcams)
 
Would this not be anti competitive? I disagree with Europe regarding most of the bs they levied at Microsoft, but if this isn't brought up as anti competitive, I don't know what is...
 
Yeesh, the hits keep on coming. Waiting for ManofGod and heatlesssun to come in here and reiterate how important it is that we all NOT be allowed to control when/which/how Windows Updates get installed...

Linux Mint is looking more and more attractive.
 
Wait .. what? Are you f'king kidding me ... no more H.264? My logitech 920 has H.264 hardware based encoding.

What the hell is going on with Windows 10 and Microsoft. It's like they are purposely trying to screw everyone over.

Software should compliment the end user not make their lives worse
 
Ars Technica's article is much better. They actually provide a workaround:
Until a proper fix is developed, affected users can disable the frame server feature and revert to the older behavior in which each application takes exclusive control of the camera. Rafael Rivera determined that some registry keys can be modified to prevent use of the frame server.

Specifically, a DWORD named EnableFrameServerMode at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform (for 32-bit Windows, and 64-bit applications on 64-bit Windows) and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform (for 32-bit applications on 64-bit Windows) set to the value zero will restore expected camera functionality.

The usual registry warnings—don't mess it up and don't change it if you don't know what you're doing—apply to making this change. Once the fix is tested and shipped, this value can be removed.
 
This is why having manual updating as an option matters, people. Why the hell should MS arbitrarily decide whether aspects of your computer continue to work or not if they're already working?
 
This is why having manual updating as an option matters, people. Why the hell should MS arbitrarily decide whether aspects of your computer continue to work or not if they're already working?

Because Apple get praised for it and people just shut up and buy the new shit when Apple breaks their old perfectly working shit with shit software. Shit.

Microsoft want some of that stupid money. So buy new shit and go kick your selves in the shit because you're stupid shits who fell for the shiney free carrot. Shit heads.
 
Yeesh, the hits keep on coming. Waiting for ManofGod and heatlesssun to come in here and reiterate how important it is that we all NOT be allowed to control when/which/how Windows Updates get installed...

Linux Mint is looking more and more attractive.

Come on in the waters are fine. Mint is a great first install option. I mess around with plenty of more down to work type of distros for work... at home I can never stop toying with distros. When I have something working just right, its never more then a day or so that I get the Itch to format and go again. :) When I am setting up a machine that just needs to work for anyone I know though... Mint is the go to. The XFCE version of their distro is underrated, I find fresh windows converts tend to like XFCE over Cinnamon. Cinnamon is flasher but XFCE is just a perfect standard desktop that does the job... you can customise things to look like pretty much any version of windows UI wise... its a less jarring change vs the popular Gnome setups imo.

Anyway give it a go... mint won't let you down. It won't force you to be a linux head... of course if you end up loving it, you might just be a few months away from realising you can install your os into a root part, or that you can mount your /home to a second drive. With Linux you change distros like underwear a few times a week, or if you feel crazy fresh install pretty much anytime you want without the muss. Windows is messy and annoying. ;)
 
Yeah try to explain "mount" to a Windows user and see how far you get. Linux is for the business world. It has no business at home. And good luck trying to get help with Linux. If Windows users don't understand what LMGTFY is, they will learn very quickly that it's a different world out there when it comes to getting help with there questions.
 
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So like when you plug your flash drive in and windows mounts it to a drive letter. You then unmount it through remove devices.

Pretty easy to explain and understand.
 
Come on in the waters are fine. Mint is a great first install option. I mess around with plenty of more down to work type of distros for work... at home I can never stop toying with distros. When I have something working just right, its never more then a day or so that I get the Itch to format and go again. :) When I am setting up a machine that just needs to work for anyone I know though... Mint is the go to. The XFCE version of their distro is underrated, I find fresh windows converts tend to like XFCE over Cinnamon. Cinnamon is flasher but XFCE is just a perfect standard desktop that does the job... you can customise things to look like pretty much any version of windows UI wise... its a less jarring change vs the popular Gnome setups imo.

Anyway give it a go... mint won't let you down. It won't force you to be a linux head... of course if you end up loving it, you might just be a few months away from realising you can install your os into a root part, or that you can mount your /home to a second drive. With Linux you change distros like underwear a few times a week, or if you feel crazy fresh install pretty much anytime you want without the muss. Windows is messy and annoying. ;)
FWIW, I'm a server/web/db admin/developer/maintainer guy at my day job, so I'm already fairly familiar with Linux. :)
 
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I'm disappointed by the lack of cam girl references so far.

To make up for this... Ladies, I'm offering free in house tech support for your camera issues.
 
How the hell is it up to Microsoft to decide which format a webcam video is encoded in? They need to get the fuck out of everyone's business and just run an operating system.

This. A thousand times this. Windows 10 is actually pretty awesome. If they'd stop trying to force it on everyone and stop trying to force all it's spyware shit to stay on with every update it would have a lot more converts. You don't own my computer Microsoft! Stop trying to make it work like you do!
 
The fix almost works for my C920. The video works, but the photo is black and crashes the program. What sucks is that I use photo mode most.
 
What really bothers me about this , is what ever changed was dealing with letting multiple services access the cam feed.

even more reason put on a tin foil hat .
 
Yeesh, the hits keep on coming. Waiting for ManofGod and heatlesssun to come in here and reiterate how important it is that we all NOT be allowed to control when/which/how Windows Updates get installed...

Linux Mint is looking more and more attractive.

Show us where we ever said that, please, give an exact, not out of context quote, please. Sure you will find no such thing.
 
Yeesh, the hits keep on coming. Waiting for ManofGod and heatlesssun to come in here and reiterate how important it is that we all NOT be allowed to control when/which/how Windows Updates get installed...

Linux Mint is looking more and more attractive.
Well that's not manofgod's style. He almost never defends bad MS moves, he just ridicules people who point them out in anything less than a completely objective manner. I did notice that the MS defense squad got pretty quiet on MS removing group policies, they'll probably sweep this one under the carpet too.
 
So, they made some improvements on how the camera is accessed to allow multiple programs to do so. Then they disabled the ability for the camera to access those 2 encoding formats figuring they would be little issue going forward. They have then found out that they were wrong and are going to fix it but it will take time. In the mean time, rolling back until the fix is available, if you need it, is an option and besides, why would most around here rush out and install what is essentially a new operating system without first verifying that everything works?

Yeah, I know, I am an apologist, I guess that means I think things through and read the article that was linked.
 
Well that's not manofgod's style. He almost never defends bad MS moves, he just ridicules people who point them out in anything less than a completely objective manner. I did notice that the MS defense squad got pretty quiet on MS removing group policies, they'll probably sweep this one under the carpet too.

Nope, I do not ridicule folks but I do sometimes use sarcasm to get my point across. My style is to provide help and read the article, not to go off half cocked like I used to 10 years or more ago.
 
So, they made some improvements on how the camera is accessed to allow multiple programs to do so. Then they disabled the ability for the camera to access those 2 encoding formats figuring they would be little issue going forward. They have then found out that they were wrong and are going to fix it but it will take time. In the mean time, rolling back until the fix is available, if you need it, is an option and besides, why would most around here rush out and install what is essentially a new operating system without first verifying that everything works?

Yeah, I know, I am an apologist, I guess that means I think things through and read the article that was linked.
So wait, rolling back changes that give you problems is an option on 10? I thought the whole point was they have rolling updates so that's no longer an option. On 7 I can just tell it to not update until I want it to, and even then undo updates that may give me problems. I thought on Win10 I don't have such a luxury. So if they were to release an update last year that's still causing me problems, tough luck, I'm stuck with it.
 
What BS they must be making drastic changes to the OS it's going to be this way forever now.
 
Thanks for the workaround. (y)
Yeah people found a work around, that is till MS sees the error of their ways and removes regedit from all users except enterprise. I mean they'd NEVER do something like that (*cough* group policy *cough*).
 
So wait, rolling back changes that give you problems is an option on 10? I thought the whole point was they have rolling updates so that's no longer an option. On 7 I can just tell it to not update until I want it to, and even then undo updates that may give me problems. I thought on Win10 I don't have such a luxury. So if they were to release an update last year that's still causing me problems, tough luck, I'm stuck with it.

Except that with the Anniversary update, it is very much like installing a whole new OS with the possibility of there being issues. They made changes to the way the camera access works and had some unforeseen side effects that they now need to fix. There is a registry workaround or you may have to roll back if you are experiencing this issue. It is really no different from removing an update in any other OS which is causing a problem.

Thankfully, there are those out there they are ahead of the game and offering workarounds and giving us a heads up that a fix is incoming.
 
It broke my main computer in many ways. I'm thinking I may have to reinstall the OS to get it back operational. For one, it refused to disable Defender when I had another AV program installed, causing major storage access contention. I had to completely remove Eset in order to make the system partially operational again. It also rendered the Arc gaming client, which I use for Star Trek Online, and all the games associated with it, inoperable. They simply refuse to even start. Then it also rendered my network printer mostly unusable. While the printer is in standby mode, the print queue goes into offline mode, which it didn't do before. Now, in order to print, I have to get the printer out of standby mode, reboot the computer repeatedly, usually 3-6 times, until the queue goes into active mode and I can print. If the printer goes into standby mode while I'm rebooting, I have to start all over again. This update is really, really annoying.
 
What I don't understand is this: If they know exactly what the problem is, why can't they simply undo it? Why does it take a month (for one codec) or a few months (for the other codec) to fix what is clearly a managerial (i.e. not technical) misstep?
 
So, they made some improvements on how the camera is accessed to allow multiple programs to do so. Then they disabled the ability for the camera to access those 2 encoding formats figuring they would be little issue going forward. They have then found out that they were wrong and are going to fix it but it will take time. In the mean time, rolling back until the fix is available, if you need it, is an option and besides, why would most around here rush out and install what is essentially a new operating system without first verifying that everything works?

Yeah, I know, I am an apologist, I guess that means I think things through and read the article that was linked.

You are also a victim blamer which makes you a ________. Fill in the blank, it is four letters.
 
....and now Microsoft is announcing that they're moving to a monthly patch cycle for Windows 7 and 8, with all patches bundled together, so you can't opt out of individual patches. What could possibly go wrong? :rolleyes:
 
....and now Microsoft is announcing that they're moving to a monthly patch cycle for Windows 7 and 8, with all patches bundled together, so you can't opt out of individual patches. What could possibly go wrong? :rolleyes:
Oh ffs, really?
 
why would most around here rush out and install what is essentially a new operating system without first verifying that everything works?

Yeah, I know, I am an apologist, I guess that means I think things through and read the article that was linked.

Why would MS rush out an update that breaks something extremely common like webcams without making sure everything works first?!?

This isn't something that broke one obscure webcam for some people. This broke a lot of webcams for many people and Microsoft should be well beyond the "Whoops" phase of learning how to OS deployments should be validated.
 
You are also a victim blamer which makes you a ________. Fill in the blank, it is four letters.

Nope, folks around here just claim to be experts but rush out and quickly install things without checking things out first. On the other hand, if you consider yourself a victim, that is on you.
 
Well that's not manofgod's style. He almost never defends bad MS moves, he just ridicules people who point them out in anything less than a completely objective manner. I did notice that the MS defense squad got pretty quiet on MS removing group policies, they'll probably sweep this one under the carpet too.

I noticed that as well..at least heatlessun is polite and good natured in his MS defense and doesn't put people down every post...I guess they are the ying and yang of the MS Defense Force
 
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