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
The plan is to get users to abandon PC’s (where one still has some kind of control over the system and can get it to do what they want) and use smartphones for everything (because smartphones are harder/impossible to ‘control’ and the phone does what it wants, not what you want).
They’re breaking Windows 7 with updates, too. In February my Corel Video Studio ceased loading and it was Microsoft security update that did it. MS attitude? Tough.
I fired Microsoft and don’t miss them a bit.
Since you don't sound like you are a 'technical user', I would suggest you find someone near you who knows and pay them to do it.
If you’ve had W10 upgraded for more than 30 days the Revert button disappears and you have to do a full install of your previous Windows operating system to get back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.
CGato
” apparently they know you need a hackable OS system and the sucky MS Office 365”
Thank Heaven I’ve held on to my Office 2003 program like grim death for a decade.
I bought a Windows 7 laptop just before they became unavailable and declined 10.
Anyone who wants to abandon one to me? An I7 would be nice with Mint 18 or Ubuntu 16.4. I'll settle for a newer I5.
It seems windows new business slogan is bigger and better mistakes through progress. Watch out for October 1st when 0 gives away internet control.
Where is a primer on Linux?
My integrated Surface 3 camera is inoperative. Gee, thanks, Microsoft.
Microsofties represent the purest essence of post-modern liberalism: they create problems in search of solutions. They change for the sake of change. And they value style over substance.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
DO THEY EVER!!!!
Until someone can provide a full proof method of turning off automatic updates in W10, or give me the ability to screen them as we once could, I will never fully use W10.
My wife has an HP desktop computer. She called their customer service, told them that she wanted to roll her computer back to original manufacturer’s settings (including Win7 operating system), and they sent her a recovery CD to make that happen. She backed up her files on a portable hard-drive but it wasn’t necessary, her files were all there.
LOL! Having a camera crash can’t be good for the NSA....
I swear I don’t work for HP or have stock in their company or anything like that, but this really elevated HP in my eyes. I guess they really improved since Carly Fiorina left.
I have Office XP, 2000, 2003, 2010, 2013 & 2016 install disks. I keep the old stuff “just in case.”
Hey, Microsoft finally came up with a good feature. Now you don't have to apply Post-It notes over the camera lens for privacy!
“Windows 10 is a disaster, I won’t go anywhere near it. My wife tried it, it was horrible”
Oddly enough, I have it on multiple laptops and a tablet, and I’ve yet to experience the hyperventilating-level. disaster.
Please tell me why my machines aren’t on fire and exploding?
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