Installing the proprietary software

The software included on the CD is pretty easy to install and configure. The disk includes the camera drivers and a copy of the Microsoft LifeCam program which provides basic webcam functions. I used it to test the webcam itself, but nothing else.

The instructions recommend that you install the software on the CD before plugging the camera in. I did this, but I have another theory that I’ll try on my computer at home.¹ Once the LifeCam software and drivers are loaded, the installer prompts you to install the Windows Live Messenger (which includes a component called Windows Live Call). This is the Microsoft software for making video calls. I installed this, but when I installed Skype later I disabled the Live Call functionality (more below).

Configuring Skype

I downloaded and installed Skype using all the default settings. Skype detected the camera automatically, so I really didn’t have to configure anything within Skype for the camera to work.

One-touch button

I found one helpful hack on the Skype user forums that explains how to make the “Live Call” one-touch button on top of the camera work with Skype instead of the default Windows Live Call program. The Skype forums report two ways to do this, one by substituting the Skype executable for the Live Call program, and the other by making edits to the Windows registry.

The only problem with the registry hack method (which has detailed explanation here) is that you may have to edit multiple entries underneath different numbers which refer to which USB port the camera is plugged into. Since there’s a good chance that my family may unplug the camera for some reason and then plug it in somewhere else, I decided to use the substitute executable method. One other commenter mentions a fascinating (and probably better) method using a symlink for Windows Vista, but it won’t work for XP. (If this paragraph doesn’t make sense to you, ignore it!)

Here are the steps I used for the substitute executable method. Essentially, this disables Windows Live Call, so it would be a good idea to remove all shortcuts to Live Call after following this hack:

1. Open the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\
2. Rename IcePick.exe (the “Live Call” executable) to IcePick.exe.bak
3. Copy skype.exe to this folder and rename it to IcePick.exe

Even when Skype is running in the background, pushing the one-touch button on top of the camera brings it up for making calls.

NOTES:

1. My theory is that if I plug the camera in without installing the Microsoft software at all, I can probably load the driver by itself into Windows from the CD using the Found New Hardware wizard. If this works, I’ll write another report explaining how.

The camera itself was fairly easy to install, and the proprietary Microsoft software works pretty well (although it’s a little too resource-intensive for my taste). You don’t have to install Windows Live Messenger to use the camera, but you will need it or Skype in order to make calls with the camera.

Compatibility issues

The camera appears to be incompatible with Windows XP Media Center and Vista 64-bit edition. I am not aware if Microsoft has updated the driver to solve this issue at this point, but this seems to be an issue from what I can tell reading online reviews and user forums.

Compatibility with Skype and Google Video Chat is mixed. The camera works with Skype basically “out of the box,” but at this point it does not work with Google Video Chat at all. Maybe a Google engineer will fix this sometime, but for now the testing window in my Gmail settings shows a black screen and the camera never turns on.

Although the camera works fine with Skype, getting the “Live Call” button on top to work with Skype requires a fairly simple hack. Since my family will make most of their video calls using Skype and not Windows Live Messenger, I’ll explain that in a future post I’ve explained that in another post.