How do I unlock a webcam locked by another application. I have a Toshiba laptop

Tala, June 2008

yes

kvaughna stubbs, May 2012

Same thing happened to me on my Gateway presumably with the same camera.

Others noted that when they installed Messenger it locked. I took this tack and uninstalled everything I could think of until I came to VirtualDub.

Now, amongst movie makers VirtualDub is considered great although a GUI that takes some getting used to.

So I dumped my built webcam software and am sticking with VirtualDub. It works great.

hoppingbuffalo, April 2010

I don't know how to unlock web cams, but it's possible to split webcam stream, so you will be able to use a few webcam applications at the same time.
How to work with the ‘Video Device > Video Output’ feature:
http://www.willingsoftware.com/help/howto.shtml#29

passer-by, July 2008