Microsoft, has moved to hobble WebCams that compete with their own LifeCam video camera offering.
The big US software company claims that the move is part of a Microsoft security crackdown.
The first time that users became aware that they had a problem was when Microsoft forced a Windows 10 anniversary update on users of their software.
According to thousands of Windows 10 users there was no advance warning that Microsoft had moved to limited the type of encoding webcams that could be connected to a Windows 10 operating system.
,As a result hundreds of Windows 10 users were suddenly faced with no capacity to use their video WebCam when using products such as Skype or when doing conference calls.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update, was the largest update to the PC software since it launched last year.
Microsoft now claims that consumers will have to wait till September for a fix to the problem.
According to several technical experts Windows no longer allows USB webcams to use MJPEG or H264 encoded streams and if a webcam does try to use these systems, it will simply freeze.
What is not known at this stage is which web cameras are affected, what we do know is that Microsoft’s own lifeCam range is not affected by their security update.
‘If you use Skype and your webcam freezes after about a minute, this is the reason,’ said one user.
Thousands of users have flocked online to complain.
More than 350 million devices have been upgraded to Windows 10 since the software was released last year.
Microsoft said ‘We have seen a small number of reports of unexpected behaviours following the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Engineering and customer support are investigating these on a case by case basis and offering trouble-shooting tips as necessary.’
