Where's the camera

[jood]

I have Win 7 Home Premium, and a Logitech USB (communicate STX) camera which I have had a few years. I can't even find the Logitech cam on my computer, but I assure you it does work on MSN & Yahoo.

I want to be able to take a picture of myself as I could do easily on XP & Vista, but the option appears to be hidden somewhere. Any ideas please?

Win 7 takes some learning!

[MarionH]

Jood,
7 has a brilliant help section -whatever you want just go to Help and type it in -
Working with the Scanner and Camera Installation Wizard


The Scanner and Camera Installation Wizard is primarily designed to install drivers for older scanners and cameras—and some networked scanners—that aren't automatically recognized by Windows.
Before using the wizard, connect your scanner or camera and turn it on. If Windows recognizes the device and installs the appropriate driver, you're all set. There's no need to run the wizard.
[IMG]mshelp://Help/?id=Microsoft.Windows.Resources.CollapseArrow[/IMG][IMG]mshelp://Help/?id=Microsoft.Windows.Resources.ExpandArrow[/IMG] To start the Scanner and Camera Installation Wizard

Marion

[jood]

Marion it is installed and has been for a while. I've used the camera before to see people on MSN & Yahoo.

What I want to do is find out where its installed so I can take a picture of myself looking at the computer, as I did in Vista and XP - but I can't find where Logitech is installed. when I do a search for it, it brings up my photo program Irfanview - but not the camera itself. I've managed to find Logicteh in properties - control panel - hardware and sound, but that still doesn't bring up the cam to take a picture.

[MarionH]

Jood - have you looked under Program Files?

[jood]

Yes Marion :( It's not there.

[MarionH]

Did you look under both Program Files - the general one and the x86 one?

[jood]

Did you look under both Program Files - the general one and the x86 one?

Yes both - as I said - if I do a search for Logitech USB (communicate STX) - it doesnt show anything - but I have chatted to people on Yahoo and MSN with our camera's going. All I want to do is get the program up so I can take a pic of myself which was easy to do in XP & Vista.

[TrevorFranklin]

The facility that was on XP is NOT included in Windows 7.
There were many problems with Windows recognising older webcams etc, so it was not included in the installation software for Windows 7.

What you will find if you do an online search is a lot of peeople trying to sell you 3rd party application that will do this for you.
Do not waste your money

Go to Microsoft and download the latest version of Windows Movie Maker...It's free!
You can get it from here as part of their 'live essentials' pack http://explore.live.com/windows-live...maker?os=other
When you run the installation, use the option of 'choose the programs you want to install' otherwise you will have a raft of applications added to your computer.
make sure you have selected only Movie maker

When it is installed;
1. open the program
2. click on the 'webcam' icon on the toolbar at the top
This will start it recording a video from your camera. When you stop it, you will need to save that file.
3. To the right of the webcam too is a tool called 'Snapshot'
This will allow you to capture one from from that video and save it as a picture to your computer

[jood]

Thanks Trevor - done that. Good to be warned about other useless programs. I must say I got a fright when I saw my face on screen lol.

How would one go if they got a new camera compatible with win 7 - would you still have to use that program?

[MarionH]

Hi - glad you have it sorted - I was going to suggest you look under Logitech Forums - there are some answers there - http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Webcam...it/td-p/621576 for example but at least you are OK now.
Cheers Marion

[TrevorFranklin]

The 'viewer' that was in XP was designed to only test your webcam and not be a full application, it could not record video etc and had many issues with the latest webcams.
Windows removed it from the Windows 7 operating system becaise of this
Windows have brought out the 'live' suite of applications for Windows 7 and this is able to use any (old or latest) webcams, as well as a number of other applications that may (or in many cases, hence the advice to use the custom install, may not), be of use in creating and sharing images and video.
The latest version has Photo Gallery which is really good, in the way that you can stitch together a number of images to create panoramics etc.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/photo-gallery

[jood]

Actually before I read your post Marion, I actually keyed in Logitech drivers, and got what I wanted after all. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

It was a combination of both your posts Marion and Trevor. so thanks to both.