Hyper-V, camera passthrough not working

Question

Following many Microsoft technical support articles, I still cannot get the device manager in my Hyper-V VM to show my camera. I have working drivers for two cameras which show video on my laptop (the vm host). I've tried enabling and disabling each cam one at a time, and tried both enabled simul. I have hyper-v Enhanced Session enabled (tried disable enable). I have rebooted the VM and the host many times. I have setup an RDP session with Local Resources for my camera(s) enabled. RDP connects fine, but no camera ever shows up in the device manager inside the VM. I have enabled camera in local group policy. I have enabled camera privacy settings on both the host and VM. I've exhausted what I can find online, please help!

Answer 1

Hi Mike, I would do the same as suggested by the Q&A Assist. Now as you have exhausted the correct configuration steps, the core reason you are not seeing the camera in Device Manager is because Hyper‑V does not support exposing host cameras as hardware devices. If your workload requires direct device access, you will need to moving away from Hyper‑V to a hypervisor that supports USB passthrough or deploying a camera that the VM can reach over TCP/IP instead of relying on the host’s USB hardware.

Answer 2

I've tried all of these suggestions (as I mentioned in my first post). I still cannot get the camera to appear in the device manager inside the hyper-v vm.

Answer 3

It seems you are experiencing issues with camera passthrough in your Hyper-V VM. Here are some steps and considerations that might help resolve the problem:

1. Check Enhanced Session Mode: Ensure that Enhanced Session Mode is enabled on both the Hyper-V host and the VM. You can do this in Hyper-V Manager under Hyper-V Settings > Enhanced Session Mode Policy.
2. RDP Local Resources: When setting up your RDP session, make sure that the camera is selected under Local Resources. This is crucial for the camera to be recognized in the VM.
3. Driver Compatibility: Ensure that the drivers for your cameras are compatible with the guest operating system running in the VM. Sometimes, drivers that work on the host may not function correctly in a virtualized environment.
4. Group Policy Settings: Since you mentioned enabling camera settings in local group policy, double-check that there are no conflicting policies that might prevent the camera from being recognized.
5. USB Redirection: If the cameras are USB devices, consider using Remote Desktop USB redirection or Enhanced Session Mode for supported operating systems, as Hyper-V does not natively support direct USB passthrough.
6. Guest Operating System Support: Verify that the guest OS supports the camera and that it is updated with the latest patches. Some operating systems may have limitations regarding device passthrough.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may want to check for any additional settings specific to the camera or consult further documentation regarding Hyper-V and device passthrough.

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References:

• Use local resources on Hyper-V virtual machine with VMConnect
• Troubleshoot Hyper-V virtual machine input, migration, and device integration issues