How to disable webcam in Windows 11/10/8/7 laptop

Integrated cameras on computers can be pretty useful especially if you enjoy using Skype or similar video calling programs. But those of you who don’t have much use for the camera might be irritated by it as it is enabled by default on Windows 10.

Moreover, built-in webcams are common these days and it would be hard to find a new version of Windows without an inbuilt camera. Being security conscious is a valid reason why you might want to disable your webcam, as webcams are often easy targets for malware.

Regardless of the rapid advancement of technology and the new security measures Windows 10 has come up with, webcams remain an effective tool for suspicious sources to hack into your system and spy on you.

You could always take the help of external software to disable the webcam, but why go through all that stress when you could easily use the Device Manager method?

Steps:

*Use Windows +R shortcut keys to open the Run command box or manually open it from the Start menu.

*Type in ‘devmgmt.msc’ in Run and press the Enter key, This command will open the computer Device manager.

*In the Device Manager, select ‘Imaging devices’ from the given list.
Note: – In some other machine variants you may find this under Sound, video and game controllers or cameras.

*Under Imaging Devices, right click the ‘Integrated Camera’ option and click on Disable. You will get a warning message saying “Disabling this device will cause it to stop functioning. Do you really want to disable it?” Clicking on Yes will disable the camera.

If the camera option does not say Integrated Camera, don’t get confused, the name of your webcam will be displayed instead.

Note: – In case you feel the need to use your webcam later, just follow the above mentioned steps and select Enable after right clicking on the camera option.

If you want to check that your inbuilt webcam has truly been disabled, click on the Start button and navigate to Camera.

If you see the message ‘Connect to camera’, your webcam has been disabled successfully.

If you find your webcam functioning then you have probably disabled another device, not the inbuilt webcam, and will have to go back to the Device Manager and choose the correct device to disable.