Posted on 08/20/2016 11:07:16 AM PDT by Swordmaker
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update for PCs started rolling out more than two weeks ago. While many have been happy with the new features and improvements it brings, thousands of others are reportedly experiencing critical issues, that are rendering their machines unresponsive.
The news of the OS causing system freezes broke out a couple of days after the rollout of the Anniversary Update began, and now a new report suggests that the update has caused another frustrating issue for users around the globe.
Brad Sams on Thurrott.com reports that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update broke millions of webcams. He states that:
Microsoft made a significant change with the release of Windows 10 and support for webcams that is causing serious problems for not only consumers but also the enterprise. The problem is that after installing the update, Windows no longer allows USB webcams to use MJPEG or H264 encoded streams and is only allowing YUY2 encoding.
Apparently, Microsoft made the aforementioned change because with the Anniversary Update, there are new methods for applications to access webcams, and the MJPEG and H264 encoding could have caused poor performance in systems. Hence, the company limited users to specific input methods to avoid the issue.
However, a problem which supposedly passed unseen through the company's internal testing procedures and Windows Insider Program feedback, is that when a webcam tries to use MJPEG or H264, the device freezes. The issue impacts not only consumers but enterprise users as well, and affects a variety of webcams, including those manufactured by Logitech.
Microsoft has addressed the inconvenience in a support thread, where an engineer from the company has stated that:
The team has been reading through all your replies over the weekend. I can understand your and your customers’ frustration, and the team can very much relate. Some of the points raised in this thread cannot be argued with, and we appreciate you bringing those to our attention in this discussion.
Right now we’re investigating the best way to address the behavior that is causing these problems. Once we have that, MJPEG and H.264 will no longer be filtered out, so your applications should continue to work as before without any changes. At the moment we have a prototype of the MJPEG update being tested, and once we validate it works well, we’ll look to publishing it out to customers who have already updated to the Anniversary Update, through our servicing channels.
[...] The decoded formats will continue to be offered, and as time passes, we hope that application developers will adopt these where possible, since we still believe they bring benefits in the new camera landscape. That being said, we’ve learned a lot from this launch and will be making improvements based on these learnings for the future, and we again would like to apologize for the confusion this may have created.
The good news is that a fix for the issue is hopefully coming in September; however, Rafael Rivera, technical contributor at Thurrott.com, has apparently discovered an unofficial solution to the problem already. You can view it on Twitter here, but do keep in mind that it involves tweaking with the registry, which can render your device unusable, if done incorrectly. Editing the registry is not recommended for inexperienced users.
Source: Microsoft via Thurrott.com | Image via Wikimedia
Ping for your list: Windows 10 Anniversary update breaking millions of webcams installing the update.
Again, they didn’t ask permission. They just did it. I never turn on auto update keys except on anti-virus.
If I knew how bad Win10 was I would NEVER have bought a new PC... going to replace the failed HD in my old PC with an SSD and go back to Win 7.. light years better in my mind...
There will be a lot of cranky wankers until it’s fixed...I thought that inexpensive two-way video would be a great communication boon for the world. Well, not so much.
Redmond strikes again...
I don’t think the word “break” means what the author thinks it does.
I use Windows 10 everyday on the computers at my work and don’t like it. The jerky responses when clicking on folders and the daily freezing and restarting the computers is maddening when trying to keep a work flow going. I much prefer Windows 7 on my two machines at home.
My eight month old laptop crashed when there was a forced Windows 10 update. The computer repair guy said the hard drive was dead. Did the update do that??!!
its been a bad month for Drives at my house...
iMac HD failed... 6yrs old
Win 7 HD failed in Jan 5 yrs old
iPod HD failed also 6 yrs old...
and of course... I cant find my Win 7 install CD, so will have to make another one...
Windows 10 is a disaster, I won’t go anywhere near it. My wife tried it, it was horrible, and she rolled back to Win7.
“We’re Microsoft. We don’t care. We don’t have to.”
(Old Lily Tomlin bit about Ma Bell...)
TOO BIG TO FAIL! *SNORT*
Has anyone noticed that the Edge browser will jump to mid page or there about where a certain ad is located? I’ve had this happen quite a bit on Drudge,Daily mail and others. Lately it has been for a Jaguar ad.
Capturing the video images for the NSA is more important that customer usability.
How do you roll back?
How do you roll back?
I just got the motivation to install Windows 7 and then do all that is needed to prevent a strong-armed Win10 "upgrade". That's a lot of effort.
Ditto. I’m on hold at Best Buy now to schedule removal of 10 and install of 7. I despise 10. We also purchased MS Office 365, which also sucks.
What’s wrong with these people? What are they smoking during brainstorming staff meetings?
A couple of developers have it as guinea pigs. Identical boxes but one is functioning OK and the other has problems with freezes and power management.
I have 7 on mine and am doing well.
10 is on both at home. No cameras so way to tell. 10 for the most part runs well.
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