Windows 10: Use external camera for Windows Hello on laptop when lid is closed

I have a LG Gram laptop that most often is connected to a dock/hub connected to dual monitors and various peripherals, including a Logitech Brio 4K camera, which I bought specifically to use to sign in with Windows Hello facial recognition. The laptop lid is closed when connected to the dock. Until recently, Windows Hello worked well using the Brio in this setup. Recently, it has only worked at Windows startup from a restart, and doesn't work to sign back in when Windows is locked. If the built-in LG IR camera is disabled in Device Manager, then the Brio works; but then when the laptop is remo

:)

 

ADVANCED: Windows Hello - External camera support when laptop is running but the lid is closed

Hi Microsoft Community,

I have a Lenovo 500 FHD USB web camera (supports Windows Hello) that I want to use for my Windows Hello login when my laptop lid is closed.

The web cam is plugged into a USB docking statation with a large external monitor plugged into it also. My issue at the moment is that I want to use my laptop with the lid closed and use the external web camera to log me in using Windows Hello instead. When the laptop lid is closed, Windows does not allow the Windows Hello smiley icon to respond to this login option as Windows knows the internal web camera is unabilable but it can not detect that the external web camera is still available and can be used instead. If I keep the laptop lid open Windows does enable Windows Hello to use the USB camera which works.

My setup is as follows:

1 x Microsoft Surface Book 3 (Windows 10 21)

1 x USB StarTech docking station

1 x Lenovo 27" monitor plugged into dockin station

1 x Lenovo 500 FHD USB web camera pluggined into docking station

Even though the latest 21H1 update has:

Windows 10, version 21H1 has a scoped set of features focused on
improvements customers want now.

·
Windows Hello multicamera support to set the external camera as
the default when both external and internal Windows Hello cameras are present.

Any suggestions on workarounds will help, alternitively it would be great to have this address in a Windows 10 update to detect external web cameras at the Window login screen when the laptop lid is closed?

I am trying to achieve this without having to disable any web cameras as I want to use the external USB web camera for WIndows Hello with the laptop lid open or clsoed and then use the internal web camera built into my Surface Book 3 laptop screen/lid for all my Microsoft Teams video calls. I do not have to use the external camera for video calls due to camera angles and positioning in my home office.

Thank you all in advance.

 

Windows Hello, use external camera instead of Laptop

Wow, thanks, @CarTzy! That's a lot of steps there...

I've gone over a bunch of them already, but I'm not going to reset my PC as that's way too much of a hassle getting back up...

Let me try and summarize my issue real short:

- Windows Hello works every time when I am using the laptop camera only

- Hooking up the Philips 499P screen camera or Logitech BRIO 4k (both over USB-C/Thunderbolt) it most often works to use any of those cameras once after being hooked up after closing my lid on the laptop.

- After successfully using the external camera once, and then try to use it again it normally fails with a message it couldn't use the camera and I should use another method of signing in.

- If I open the laptop lid after it has failed the laptop camera works and logs me in.

So, it's like Windows Hello is losing the "connection" to the external camera but it can still find and use the laptop camera.

Windows Version and Edition?

Version 21H2 (22000.376)

Windows 11 Business

When did the issue started?

Hello on the Laptop camera has always worked fine. Hello using an external camera (Both the Philips 499P screen camera and Logitech BRIO 4K) is sporadic, it works sometimes but most often not.

Was this working before?

As stated, on Laptop camera only, no issues. The external camera works sometimes, but most often not.

 

Use external camera for Windows Hello on laptop when lid is closed

I have a LG Gram laptop that most often is connected to a dock/hub connected to dual monitors and various peripherals, including a Logitech Brio 4K camera, which I bought specifically to use to sign in with Windows Hello facial recognition. The laptop lid is closed when connected to the dock. Until recently, Windows Hello worked well using the Brio in this setup. Recently, it has only worked at Windows startup from a restart, and doesn't work to sign back in when Windows is locked. If the built-in LG IR camera is disabled in Device Manager, then the Brio works; but then when the laptop is removed from the dock and the lid opened, facial recognition doesn't work with the built-in camera and reports it couldn't turn the camera on. Edit: The Brio has stopped working, even with the built-in LG IR camera disabled. Hello fails and Windows says it couldn't turn on the camera.

System Info: LG Gram 17 with Windows 11 Pro 22H2 build 22621.2134, up to date per Windows Update (last update was Cumulative Update for Windows 11, KB5029263, and Cumulative Update for .NET Framework, KB5028948, both installed 8/11/2023)

How can I make Windows support both cameras?