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.
