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

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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.

 

Windows Hello, use external camera instead of Laptop

Ok, this has been working, although a bit of a hit-n-miss sometimes for the screens we have in the office, Philips Brilliance 499P, which have Windows Hello compatible cameras. Most often if I boot my laptop at work and start it with the lid closed the external camera on the 499P will log me in.

However, if I at some point during the day open the lid on the laptop (Dell XPS 17, also with Windows Hello camera), it stops working on the external screen and only the laptop camera will log me in (which is annoying as I have the laptop on a shelf underneath the table).

I recently got a Logitech BRIO 4K with Windows Hello for my home office but that is even harder to get working with Windows Hello. The camera works fine, and if I chose to "improve my face recognition" Windows happily is using the Logitech BRIO cam and not the Laptop one.

If I boot my laptop at home with the lid closed the Logitech BRIO logs me in the first time, but if I lock my computer, or it goes to sleep over lunch, the Logitech BRIO isn't working anymore (Windows Hello says it can't find the device) but logging in with password and checking the device manager the camera is there and working. Also, opening the lid of the laptop instead of giving the password also logs me in, so clearly Windows has chosen to use the laptop cam and disabled the external one (even though the lid has been closed all the time).

I found a post to set the Registry Key "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\LidNotifyReliable" to 0 (zero) and that seems to help getting the external camera enabled for Hello again, but again, just once... Locking the computer and trying Hello again, and it won't work...

I've also seen a number of posts saying to "set a default camera" in devices and printers but that option hasn't been there since Windows 8 I think so that is not a helpful answer...

I had thought that since Windows 11 Hello would support multiple cameras...