Surface Pro 7 (Win 11) – Camera works in Teams/Meet but fails in Windows Camera App & Hello (Error 0xA00F429F)

Hi everyone, I'm experiencing a frustrating issue with my Surface Pro 7 on Windows 11.

The Issue:

• The camera works perfectly in MS Teams and Google Meet.

The native Windows Camera app fails with error code 0xA00F429F <WindowShowFailed> (0x887A0004).

Windows Hello Face cannot be set up; the setup window crashes/closes immediately.

Interestingly, the camera preview works in Settings -> Privacy & security -> Camera, proving the hardware is alive.

Technical Findings:

• My C:\Windows\System32\WinBioPlugIns\FaceDriver folder is missing essential files, specifically HelloFace.inf. Only some .dll files are present.

What I've tried so far:

Driver Updates: I've updated everything via Windows Update and manually installed the official Surface Pro 7 driver MSI package, including drivers like iacamera64.inf, iactrllogic64.inf, and ov7251.inf. All drivers report as up to date, but the issue persists.

UEFI Settings: I have checked the UEFI settings to ensure that the cameras and IR sensors are enabled at the hardware level. Everything is set to "Enabled".

• System Files: I found that my C:\Windows\System32\WinBioPlugIns\FaceDriver folder is missing essential files, specifically HelloFace.inf.

It seems like legacy apps using DirectShow work fine, but modern apps relying on Media Foundation/Frame Server fail because the Windows Hello biometric component is corrupted or missing. Does anyone know how to manually force-install the Hello Face component when the usual "Optional Features" or DISM routes fail?

Thank you in advance