Microsoft releases Windows updates on a monthly basis bringing new features, improvements, and bug fixes. In fact, updates for supported versions of Windows are expected today as well, as the firm initiates these rollouts on the second Tuesday of each month, known as "Patch Tuesday". However, sometimes, its releases cause unforeseen issues that are usually patched in the subsequent monthly update or through out-of-band updates. Now, Microsoft has announced that it has resolved one such niggling issue affecting Arm-based Windows devices.
On May 23, several users leveraging Arm-based Windows PCs began reporting errors when using the integrated camera through the Windows Camera app. They were greeted with a failure message that said "0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)" with no description as to what it means or how to fix it. Microsoft investigated the problem and learned that it affected PCs hosting Qualcomm 8cx Gen 1, Qualcomm 8cx Gen 2, Microsoft SQ1, and Microsoft SQ2 processors, which means that Surface devices were heavily impacted.
At that time, Microsoft issued a workaround that involved changing registry values to lower the image quality, allowing the camera to at least function, but noted that customers should implement this mitigation at their own risk on affected devices. Now, however, the company has announced a more permanent fix for the annoying problem.
In an announcement on the Windows release health dashboard, Microsoft has noted that the issue has been fully resolved through updated camera drivers that will be rolling out via Windows Update within the next few weeks. If you do not receive the updated drivers automatically or even after manually checking through Windows Update, it may be because the patched driver has not yet been made available by your device OEM. If that happens, there is nothing to do but wait for a fix or apply Microsoft's mitigation at your own risk in the meantime. The issue has been marked as "Resolved External" on the dashboard, which indicates that Microsoft worked directly with OEMs to reach a solution.
The updated camera drivers will be rolled out to all affected versions of Windows, namely Windows 11 version 21H2 and 22H2, and Windows 10 version 22H2. Speaking of Windows 11 version 21H2, do keep in mind that this original release of the operating system is reaching end of life later this year, which means that if similar issues pop up in the future, your only path forward to a permanent fix would be to upgrade to a newer and supported version of Windows.