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TL;DR: How to unregister a camera from Windows?

Windows 7 Professional

I've (stupidly) installed some drivers that would allow my smartphone to appear as a webcam in Windows. I have since removed the associated application

However, things like Skype and Chrome still think I have a webcam. And they try to launch it, which results in "Critical Error: Could not start iWebcamera App."

enter image description here

I see the same error popup periodically in Chrome too.

Neither Skype nor Chrome offer any way to "remove" a camera, so I suppose it is upto Windows to unregister the camera, but I can't seem to find out how.

I tried looking under Device Manager, but couldn't find anything there either.

Question is: How do I unregister a camera from Windows? How can I tell Windows I don't have such a camera that it thinks I do. Where does Windows store it's information about available cameras?

Slav
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    Have you tried System Restore to a date before you installed the drivers? – CharlieRB Apr 21 '16 at 16:24
  • The driver might be still loading at every startup. You can try Autoruns from Windows SysInternals to disable the camera driver (identified using company/product name listed there) from the "Drivers" tab. However, make sure you don't disable any essential ones accidentally. – w32sh Apr 21 '16 at 16:46
  • Uninstall the driver that was installed. See my Skype question for details how I solved a similar problem with another driver. – Ramhound Apr 21 '16 at 16:47
  • @Ramhound I am lost there... it talks mainly about Asus motherboards... mine isn't. – Slav Apr 21 '16 at 17:41
  • The point of me linking you to that question, was to highlight the fact, a driver is being loaded (which is using the camera in question) into memory and blocking Skypes ability to use your camera. If you stop loading that driver you solve the problem. – Ramhound Apr 21 '16 at 17:48
  • @w32sh great utility, however I went through every entry and did not find anything related to the camera. – Slav Apr 21 '16 at 17:59
  • @Ramhound I don't have a camera connect. And my problem is that I don't want the computer to think that I do. – Slav Apr 21 '16 at 18:00
  • Keep looking. There is some driver being loaded that is the malicious driver/device otherwise Skype wouldn't be displaying that error. – Ramhound Apr 21 '16 at 19:46
  • @Moab edited the question. This is not a duplicate and your linked duplicate question does not help me. – Slav Apr 21 '16 at 20:16
  • Voted to reopen – Moab Apr 21 '16 at 20:39
  • @Slav: The file names names may not be obvious sometimes. May be you can post a full Autoruns log online so that one of us can take a look. Also, a report generated using msinfo32 will help. – w32sh Apr 22 '16 at 02:58
  • These are the file names to look out for. iWebcameraFilter.dll & Interop.Bonjour.dll – w32sh Apr 22 '16 at 09:32

1 Answers1

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Uninstall Skype

Download and Run Malware Bytes https://www.malwarebytes.org/

Alongside your Anti-Virus and i'd Recommend CCleaner as well https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

After running these tools and removing anything unwanted, re-install Skype.

I use AVG, Malware Bytes, and CCleaner for cleaning nearly all computers i work on.

Ryan
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  • Ran Malware Bytes scan. Didn't find anything – Slav Apr 21 '16 at 18:00
  • Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing Skype? – Ryan Apr 22 '16 at 09:53
  • Not yet, since it's not a Skype issue. Chrome sees the same "camera". Sure I can reformat and restore from an image, but I wanted to figure out where Windows keeps its camera information so that I don't have to resort to that – Slav Apr 25 '16 at 03:52