Webcam in use on Sysprepped image
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I’m running into a bit of a head scratcher on our Windows 10 (1703 EDU) sysprepped image. Every computer I deploy it to reports that it’s webcam is in use by another application even when process view is showing nothing hooking into that hardware running. Interestingly the Windows 10 Camera app works just fine though. This seems like it must be a problem with our sysprep process, our unattend file, or the image process (doubtful) since if I install Windows straight onto the same hardware using the ISO image we used to create our syprepped image I don’t run into the same issue. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what would cause this though. Any help tracking it down so I can squash this issue would be appreciated.
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@darrin-enerson Going to guess whatever software that is complaining talks to an Internet source - and that’s how it knows. Look for instructions on how to mass deploy that software instead of baking it into the image.
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@Wayne-Workman We don’t bake any software into the image and deploy it all after deployment using either snap-ins or GPOs. The software that complains is anything that taps into the webcam other than the built in camera app so it seems to be an OS issue and not specific to any application.
What I’ve been using as a test is the built in Skype app with no additional snap-ins or software deployed in the image. If I replicate the same steps on the same hardware but install off the ISO file instead (and skip sysprep as a result) I don’t have the same problem so that seems to point toward something in the process between sysprep and deploy.
Edit: We do have one application installed in the image actually; the fog client. I kind of doubt that’s causing the issue though.
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@darrin-enerson So this error “in use”. Can we get a screenshot of it? Also, do you think it has to do with a licensing problem or do you think it’s a hardware access problem? Also is this an embedded camera or external like a doc cam?
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@wayne-workman It’s occurring on both the built-in webcam and an external USB webcam so that makes me think it’s some kind of access control issue in the OS between the software and the hardware. It’s worth noting that I just re-imaged the same laptop and it’s not currently exhibiting the same symptoms which is strange. Possible it’s some kind of hardware fault but then I’d think that it wouldn’t work in the camera app either. We’ve had similar issues with this image/Windows version and doc cam software this year as well so I suspect there’s some trigger I’m missing.
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@darrin-enerson Since we are unsure if it’s hardware related or not, you should begin tracking what laptop & time this problem happens on - and start testing with more units of the same hardware. If it is a hardware issue, you will quickly find which laptop it is.
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@wayne-workman That’s my thought as well now with this new data. The fact that this one is working fine on a re-image now tends to rule out the sysprep, unattend file, setupcomplete.cmd, fog client, and image process itself. I’m going to deploy snap-ins one at a time to the control machine as well to see if one of them is the culprit.
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Hi,
with 1703 there was a change regarding to encoding, have a look to this and try it please:
https://wccftech.com/fix-windows-10-webcam-issue-anniversary-update/Windows 10 Anniversary Update drops support for webcams that rely on the H.264 and MJPEG compression type leading to video steams crashing or freezing up completely. Furthermore, it’s expected that Microsoft will release an update later this year, in September to be more precise, to patch things up as well. But only god knows how long of a wait that is, therefore we’re going to lay down a fix right here, right now, which will hopefully patch your webcam vows once and for all.
Regards X23
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@x23piracy That looks like it might be exactly what we’re experiencing but I have no clue why it would only show up intermittently. I’ll test this out and see if it fixes the issue when I can get it to trigger again. Thanks for the info.
