Windows 10 is in a dangerous moment. It has missed sales expectations, is no longer free and now the troubled ‘Anniversary Update’ - the biggest upgrade Windows 10 has received to date - is causing new problems…
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As Thurrott writer Brad Sams notes, of particular concern is a Microsoft support thread where it is clear that customers of substantial enterprise clients are being hit hard.
One user writes: “We have a working product running for years and millions of unhappy users that are unable to use it at all after this update” with another explaining: “We have millions of users and we are in situation now where we have to tell them not to update the Windows anymore or switch to Mac OS.”
Microsoft has replied to the thread to acknowledge the problem and said it is working on a fix. The company also explained the logic behind a controversial decision it made which caused the problem in the first place.
In short: with the Anniversary Update installed Windows 10 drops support for all USB connected webcams that use the ubiquitous MJPEG or H.264 encoded streams (only the YUY2 will work). The reasoning behind this was Microsoft wanted to boost webcam performance on its own Windows apps which gain new permissions to access user webcams with the Anniversary Update.
Those apps use MJPEG and H.264 so it was possible webcam streams could’ve been duplicated, lowering performance. To avoid this Microsoft cut off MJPEG and H.264 support for third party USB webcams instead:
“It was important for us to enable concurrent camera access, so Windows Hello, Microsoft Hololens and other products and features could reliably assume that the camera would be available at any given time, regardless of what other applications may be accessing it,” the company explained.
Yes it sounds crazy to me too but at least Microsoft will backtrack.
Furthermore, until an official fix is found, engineer Rafael Rivera has discovered a successful workaround for those who aren’t afraid to edit the Windows registry:
A workaround has been found to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update webcam problem. Image credit:... [+]
Ultimately the whole situation is highly regrettable for Microsoft given the Anniversary Update does also contain some significant upgrades and great secret features.
But as it stands the Anniversary Update is doing more harm than good to the reputation of Windows 10 and it is hard to see how it will convince Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, who declined to upgrade to Windows 10 when it was free, to upgrade now they have to pay.
Then again, this is why Microsoft has a mischievous plan to transform Windows 7 and Windows 8 into Windows 10...
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