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
When my Gateway running Vista bites the dust, I’ll probably get a Chromebook.
“I don’t think the word “break” means what the author thinks it does.”
Welcome to the world of tech blogs and the brainless people that reads them.
Apparently OS updates on every other platform never have had issues....ever.
Well they do, it’s just the users of those platforms dont meltdown like it’s performance art. LOL!
I find Windows 7 to be wonderful. I don’t see a need to “improve” on it other than to sell new software. But I’m not a computer guru, just your average user.
LOL! There you go!
Windows 10 Anniversary update on my 2 year old and 8 year old Dell Laptops. Nothing Broken here.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I believe much of Wall Street has been infected by people like this. That failure falls on our leftist indoctrinating college system.
Real-world economic performance is not required as long as the left runs our government and the Fed with so much crony capitalism going on. They just keep printing money and pumping billions in to Wall St so who cares about real-world economic performance. Even if they fail, the leftists running our government will bail them out, no matter what massive debt it brings to our country. Liberalism is beyond a mental disorder, bringing this madness to our country.
We can only hope and pray, with Trump's leadership, we can see this sort of crony capitalism end as we know it before it destroys this country.
CGato
MicroSuck...
I like my Windows 7 operating system, and wish the company would just leave me alone and in peace.
I don’t want their new ObamaSoft 10 operating system, and will wind up a Linux user if they don’t stop trying to own my computers.
“They’re breaking Windows 7 with updates, too.”
Since the end of July I’ve had an “Update!” icon sitting in my system tray that I refuse to click on.
I’m suspicious that there’s some sneakware hidden among the actual system updates that will open my computer up to downloading the ObamaSoft 10 operating system.
Especially awesome is updates are not optional.
I'm right there with you. I don't want to "upgrade". I like my Windows 7. But, I just cruise the internet -- don't do anything fancy, so it works for me. Can someone please explain to the geniuses at Microsoft that not everyone needs a Windows 10.
“Thank Heaven I’ve held on to my Office 2003 program like grim death for a decade.”
My wife and I have done the same for our small business and home computers. At first it was just out of sheer economic necessity, but now we’re scared to install anything new from the company.
I know a few people that love Linux Mint.
I like to run a lighter Linux OS with 64-bit Lubuntu. Both Mint and Lubuntu are based on Ubuntu and the article is correct, they just work.
CGato
I’m suspicious that there’s some sneakware hidden among the actual system updates that will open my computer up to downloading the ObamaSoft 10 operating system.
The Windows 10 free upgrade was supposed to end at the end of July so who knows what that is. I found an article that said after the end of July, an upgrade to W10 now has to be purchased. So I wonder what happens to the previous nagware where they tried to get everyone to upgrade, either by hook or by crook. I understand your skepticism on what that may be.
CGato
How would I possibly know. My wife’s computer just inexplicably stopped recognizing our internet connection (even though other devices in the house used it just fine). Then it wouldn’t recognize her printer anymore. About half the time, she couldn’t find files on her computer where she knew she had them stored. It’s real easy to say, “She was lousy with computers or her computer was a piece of junk.” Isn’t it amazing how all those problems disappeared when Win7 was reloaded and has run without a glitch for the last 6 months?
“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.”
Yeah; I’ve done some research on that and it’s very clear that for home users, you WILL receive updates whenever THEY want to install them. There are no options to disable auto updates, or select certain updates on a case-by-case basis.
“Now you don’t have to apply Post-It notes over the camera lens for privacy!”
That’s their story, anyhow. True? hmmmm
“I bought a Windows 7 laptop just before they became unavailable and declined 10.”
I did the same.
“Watch out for October 1st when 0 gives away internet control.”
I must have missed that. What happens Oct 1?
Will never own a pc with windows 10. Will not use it. Big brotherware can go fuch itself.
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