Webcam stopped working? You could blame Windows 10 Anniversary Update (plus, a workaround!)

Windows 10 Anniversary Update has been gradually rolling out to computers around the world and like any big software update it has caused its fair share of problems. The latest issue to rear its head sees Anniversary Update killing webcams.

The problem comes about as the update prevents USB webcams from using MJPEG or H264 encoded streams, instead requiring the use of YUY2 encoding. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix that should be released in September, but all is not lost in the meantime.

Microsoft chose to change the encoding support to improve performance -- clearly preventing webcams from working at all was an unwanted, and unforeseen, side effect. If you have been struck by webcam woes after installing Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you could go as far as performing a rollback -- assuming you are within the permitted period, of course -- but there is something else you might like to try as well.

Over on Thurrott.com, Brad Sams shares a workaround that was discovered by software engineer Rafael Rovera:

HKLMSOFTWAREWOW6432NodeMicrosoftWindows Media FoundationPlatform, add DWORD "EnableFrameServerMode" and set to 0. #webcamgate

— Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) August 19, 2016

Have you been affected by the webcam problem? And does the fix work for you?

Photo credit: digitalconsumator / Shutterstock