I have a Logitech C525 webcam. My host OS is Windows 10 Version 1511, build 10586.11. I'm using the latest version of VMware Workstation 12 Player. The webcam won't work in any apps on my PC host except the built-in Windows 10 Camera app. Other apps (such as Skype) either give a black rectangle with a spinning circle (in Video Options), or the message “Can't start video, try closing other programs ...”.
I thought that this was a problem with Windows 10 or the Logitech driver, but recently I've discovered that the webcam works within a virtual guest machine (eg. it worked with a WinXP VM).
I suspect that one of the VMware components is taking ownership of my webcam and stopping apps on my PC from using it. The problem occurs at all times - whether a VMware guest is running or not.
I have tried disabling all of the VMware services, including the VMware USB Arbitration Service, but this doesn't fix it.
This problem seemed to start when I upgraded VMware Workstation 12 Player to the latest version.
Its starting to look like it might be a VMware problem. It doesn't seem to feature much on the Internet as a problem with other users. It might be possible to prove this by uninstalling VMWare Player, but I'd like to try this forum first to see if there is a fix.
There is a detailed description of the problem here:http://community.skype.com/t5/Integration-into-Windows-10/Can-t-start-video-try-closing-other-programs-that-might-be-using/m-p/4202953 with links to my system info.
Thanks in advance.