Windows 10 Anniversary Update Broke Millions of Webcams, Here’s How to Fix It
Windows 10 Anniversary Update reportedly broke millions of webcams . If your webcam gets damaged, there is a way to get it back if you don’t mind tweaking the registry a bit.
The issue stems from a change in the way Windows 10 handles decoding of certain video streams from a webcam. This can affect webcams connected to the network and via USB, causing the camera to freeze when trying to use it and cannot be accessed. If your camera is damaged, you can follow these steps from Thurrott.com author Rafael Rivera to get it working again:
- Open regedit from the start menu.
- Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform - Right-click the Platform folder and select New> DWORD. Name it EnableFrameServerMode.
- Right-click the new value and select Modify.
- Enter “0” in the “Value” field.
- Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform - Repeat steps 3-5.
At the moment, this seems to be the only fix that allows you to stay in the Anniversary Update. If you haven’t updated yet and do not want your webcam to crash, try postponing the updates. Though given Microsoft’s penchant for distributing updates, this can be tricky.