Windows 10 - Camera & Microphone keeps muting itself or disabled (Zoom, Google Meet, Skype)

With Covid pandemic, Online meetings are now a necessity. Zoom, Google meet, Bluejeans and old world tools Skype - almost all tools can be called as essential utilities... :)

One day - during  a call (Windows 10 Pro) - suddenly the camera got disabled. When I tried to enable from the client (Zoom, Meet etc), the camera will not turn on. Similarly sometimes microphone would get disabled and would not turn on.

Steps should be same for both Windows 10 Home & Pro. Though I used them on Windows 10 Pro.

Short term fix - Go to Privacy Setting-> Camera-> Check "Camera Access for this device" is on. If not enable it. Step 2 : Enable allow apps to use camera.

Repeat the same steps for Microphone.

But,.. but.. this repeats every 10 mins. Camera or Mic will get disabled every 10 mins and I had to repeat above steps to get them enabled... yikes!

Fix that worked - 

Luckily internet with Google search helps! 

First things first - Check event log. Type Event viewer, open the app. Let it load - might take few mins (upto 15 mins maybe?)

Once loaded, on the main screen you will see Error & Warning. For me, I had quite a few warning in last 1 hours and all of them were related to Event 10016. Yes - it was the notorious DCOM permission issue and very likely with Runbroker services. Double click on 10016 and it will show the details of all occurrences with messages.

Sample Error Message:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID 

{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}

 and APPID 

{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}

 to the user PERSONAL\sampleuser SID (S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxx)  from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

[xxx is numbers]

How to fix -

Quite a few helpful articles exist to fix the DCOM runbroker permission issue. Do note, these will require using advanced tools . The fix did work for me!

Step 1. Try this simple step. If it works- you are in luck!

 Removed Delayed autostart for a critical windows service. Follow the link below for detailed steps

 https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/fix-event-id-10016-distributedcom-error-event-log-dcomcnfg-permissions/

Step 2: This is more involved. Follow any of these links for steps to resolve the issue

 https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-the-application-specific-permission-settings-do-not-grant-local-activation-permission-for-the-com-server-application-error/

 https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-security/event-id-10016-runtime-broker/18c291c6-f2a1-4f3c-b4ad-2b7ff59fd9f9

 https://shauncassells.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/windows-10-event-10016-fix-the-application-specific-permission-settings-do-not-grant-local-activation-permission-for-the-com-server-application-with-clsid-d63b10c5-bb46-4990-a94f-e40b9d520160-and-a/

Slight differences in details, but mostly same.

Hope it helps you with issues like occasional windows freeze or Camera and mic muting themselves, getting disabled, permission issues. 

In my case, very likely the issue got triggered after a) changing my login from local to Microsoft account or 2) Upgrading my Windows.