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Kinect SDK version 2 is out and fully supports Windows 8 Modern apps. So, if you want to publish your Kinect apps in the Windows Store and get featured there, this is your chance!

As an early tester of Microsoft products, I recently installed Windows 10 Preview in a secondary development machine. I then tried my WinRT apps to discover any compatibility issues. Windows 10 Preview seems decent enough, so most of the apps run without any problems. When it came to Kinect v2 apps however, none of them would function properly! What’s going on? Is Kinect v2 incompatible with Windows 10 modern apps?! I was frustrated.

Then, my partner George informed me about a workaround he applied to make Skype working again. Could it be the same fix for the Kinect camera?

Seems that all of the WinRT apps which require access to a camera need to be explicitly allowed to make use of that hardware. So, if you want to run Windows 10 Kinect apps, just follow these easy steps:

1. Launch your app using Visual Studio or Windows Store, or install using PowerShell

If you are a developer, you most probably have Visual Studio installed. If you have received a PowerShell script with an executable file, run it as you’d normally do. If you have downloaded a Kinect app from Windows Store, ignore this step.

2. Close the app

Shut down the app completely.

3. Launch PC Settings → Privacy → Webcam

You’ll find a list of the installed apps that make use of connected cameras. By default, each toggle-button is grayed-out. Select the installed Kinect app and switch to “On”.

That’s it, folks! You can now enjoy your modern Kinect apps in Windows 10 Preview.

[Tweet “How to run Kinect v2 modern apps on Windows 10 Preview #k4w”]
Vangos Pterneas

Vangos Pterneas is a software engineer, book author, and award-winning Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (2014-2019). Since 2012, Vangos has been helping Fortune-500 companies and ambitious startups create demanding motion-tracking applications. He's obsessed with analyzing and modeling every aspect of human motion using AI and Maths. Vangos shares his passion by regularly publishing articles and open-source projects to help and inspire fellow developers.

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