Webcam problem, any advice?

I have a built in webcam (laptop) but recently, I tried to use the webcam and realized the shortcut was gone, I checked the webcam folder, which I never even open (I use webcam via task bar shortcut) and it's empty but then I open skype and it works perfectly so why doesn't it run as it used to? I need skype to use the webcam and I didn't need it before so why now?
Added (1). I have windows 7 if it helps to answer this.

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