Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 get new Intel camera drivers for Fast Ring, improves Windows Hello

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Something new is brewing at Microsoft, and it appears the company is pushing out driver updates for its new Surface devices, but only for those on the Fast Ring (we have not tested Slow, but possibly there too).

Both our Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, which are on build 'Redstone' 14352.1002, received no less than seven Intel driver updates. The updates appear to be tied directly to improvements with Windows Hello, facial recognition, and the Surface's cameras.

Here are the drivers updated:

  • Intel driver update for Intel(R) Imaging Signal Processor 2500
  • Microsoft driver update for Surface Camera Windows Hello
  • Intel Corporation driver update for Microsoft Camera Front
  • Intel driver update for Intel(R) AVStream Camera 2500
  • Intel Corporation driver update for Microsoft IR Camera Front
  • Intel Corporation driver update for Microsoft Camera Rear
  • Intel Corporation driver update for Intel(R) Control Logic

These updates come in addition to the refreshed Intel CSI2 Host Controller driver published last Thursday for Surface owners in the Fast Ring.

Besides improved performance and reliability we also now noticed that the privacy light (white) now comes on along with the infrared one when Windows Hello is initiated. The privacy light is to the right of the camera, whereas IR is to the left. We compared it to a Surface Pro 4 on Release Preview, and only the IR light comes on during the Windows Hello process. It is not clear why there is this change, but it is new. Users can see this light in action when the front-facing camera is engaged using the native Camera app.

Hopefully, these updates fix the issues Windows Hello has been having lately on the Redstone builds in the Fast Ring.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

18 Comments
  • Am I the only one who makes faces when using windows hello? But of course it doesn't accept a wacky face so I need to go serious again. Wish its advanced enough to recognize me with a silly face.
  • Try a hungover face...that's how you know you partied hard, when Windows Hello doesn't recognize you in the morning. Speaking from experience.
  • Best comment I've seen on WC. Posted via my $30 Lumia 640
  • Hopefully it fixed the issue where IR would stay on after log in from sleep.
  • I'm having this problem with my Lumina 950 (WIP fast ring) and the only option is hard reset phone (by pressing power button for 10 seconds) Posted via Surface Pro 4 or Microsoft Halo Phone
  • * Lumia
  • That is a soft Reset...But yeah.. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • I hope they fixed the issue where windows hello turns on after I lock my machine. Makes me lock and run all the time to prevent it from unlocking.
  • Is this about the updates that came out a few days ago? I'm not seeing anything new today.
  • My SurfaceBook update history shows I received these updates  on 6-4-16. Haven't noticed any performance improvements in past couple days.  
  • In the meantime, almost 8 months after releasing SP4 the device still can't wake up from sleep and still doesn't fully go to sleep generating incredible heat in my bag...
  • Is this a staggered or lagging rollout? Six of those were installed on my Surfbook four days ago; and many have the same IDs as the drivers mentioned in the May 9 update roster. I'm still waiting on the Hello driver seen in the screen grab above. Strikes me as a kind of rough delivery for drivers from Surface land, but I'm always happy to get any new drivers whenever they show up.  
  • Does surface pro 4 work well with build 14352.1002?
  • I wish they'd fix it for mobile where it's more useful
  • So does this mean, as a reference, best time to buy a surface book (or surface pro) working almost acceptably bugfree out of the box is roughly 9 months post release date?
  • Yeah, sort of -- but only as a specific instance of the general principle that you shouldn't buy anything until nine months after the release date. :D
  • Does anyone else have the issue where they go to turn on their surface book and just nothing happens? The key board still lights up so there is power but can't get a picture, have to turn off the whole machine and back on again to start using....... only issue I have with this machine, everything else is great!
  • This has happened to me a few times, but it's not a regular thing. I usually run my SB with a dock and 24 inch monitor, and the display settings sometimes lose track of which screen(s) to light up when I wake from sleep. I have the impression it was a little likelier to happen if the clipboard had been detached and reattached in the recent past, but I can't be sure that's a real contributing element. As you noted, a complete shutdown/powerup cycle fixes any such issue. I got my SB in early April, and there were firmware and driver updates since then that seem to have reduced problems with waking behavior. I agree the machine is great, but it wasn't love at first sight. I had to live with it a couple of weeks before I really began to grasp how good a device it really is