3.1.18 - Never manages to Canon EOS Rebel T7 camera on my imaging laptop, but works on all other PCs [solved]

[arthare]

I figured this one out myself and it wasn't BYE's fault, but figured I would post it, as I didn't find anyone else having the exact same issue.

Situation:

• Brand new Rebel T7, ready for its first imaging session
• Very old (2013-era) small laptop with Windows 10 Enterprise N, build 1809
• This laptop used to happily control my old Rebel T2i with BYE 3.1.17 until said T2i's USB port died.
• Took it out to image last night, and BYEOS wouldn't talk to my Rebel T7.  It would error out after selecting the camera as if it wasn't even connected.
• The computer also didn't recognize the camera - couldn't grab pictures from it in windows explorer
• None of the official Canon software would recognize the camera either
• Looked in device manager (winkey+R->devmgmt.msc), and found the camera there with an exclamation point.  The error message after right-click->properties was Code 28, saying that no driver was available
  • But all the online googling I did said "no drivers are necessary for the T7".  So what gives?

Things I tried:

• Unplugging and replugging did not fix it.
• Trying different cables did not fix it.
• Rebooting either the camera or laptop or both did not fix it.

Solution:

• Windows 10 Enterprise N (the N is important) is a stripped down, super-basic edition of Windows 10, and doesn't include the "Media Features" pack, which includes the drivers that talk to some cameras.  My old Rebel T2i was fine, but I guess the Rebel T7 needs the newer drivers.
• So if you have an "N" version of windows, you need to hop over to microsoft's site and download the appropriate version of the "Media Features" pack.
• In my case, I had Windows x64 build 1809 (go to Settings->System->About), so I downloaded the appropriate media features installer, installed, rebooted, and everything worked!

 

I've only had one imaging night with BYE so far (USB port died on the camera on my next attempt) and I loved it!  By far the best astronomy purchase I've made in years.