How the Windows Image Acquisition Service Stores Images from a USB Camera in Preview (286066)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q286066

SUMMARY

This article describes how the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service assigns device identifiers (IDs) and how ID assignment affects where preview images from a Universal Serial Bus (USB) camera are stored on the computer.

MORE INFORMATION

The WIA service assigns device identifiers (IDs) according to which port you plug the device into. Therefore the ID for a device can vary. You can verify the ID in the %Windir%\Temp\Wia\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\DeviceID folder, where DeviceID is a unique ID that identifies the WIA device.

If you remove the device while you are viewing images and you then connect it to a different port, the images may seem to be lost. This can occur because the device driver cannot tell whether this is the exact same camera that used a different port earlier in the session or another camera of the same model. The images are not really lost. They are just stored in the folder for the first device ID.

You can plug the camera back into the original port and continue to upload the pictures by using the Get Pictures Wizard. Alternatively, you can end the Get Pictures Wizard session and start a new one while the camera is connected to the new port. This action creates a new ID for the current port.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/6/2002
Keywords:kbgraphic kbHardware kbinfo KB286066
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.