How to Enable or Disable Camera in Windows 10

From a privacy point of view, you may want to disable Camera in Windows 10. We will review two methods of how it can be done. Almost all modern portable devices come with a camera these days. Laptops and tablets come with webcams and 2-in-1s like Surface come with dual cameras. Windows 10 ships with a Camera app for all essential functionality related to capturing video or pictures. Skype calls, various online services, Win32 apps and Universal apps can access your camera.

These days, both external cameras and built-in webcams have an activity indicator. Usually it is implemented as a tiny LED that turns on when the camera device is in use and active. Windows 10 includes a built-in Camera app that allows taking photos and recording videos. For devices without such an indicator, Microsoft has added a special OSD notification that appears when device is activated, and remains in the history in the Action Center.

It is easy to disable the camera on Windows 10. For example, you can disable it in Device Manager, and none of the installed apps will be able to use it. But it is not that convenient to find the camera device in the Device manager. To address this issue, Microsoft has added new controls to the Camera listing in Settings. The Settings app has a page for the available cameras, so it is now easy to configure and disable them from there.

This post will show you how to disable a Camera on Windows 10. We will start with the Settings method, which is available in Windows 10 build 21354 and above.

How to Disable Camera in Windows 10

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Devices > Cameras.
3. Under the Cameras section on the right, click on your camera device you want to disable.
4. Click on the Disable button.
5. Click on Yes in the confirmation dialog.
6. You have disabled your camera.

You are done. This is a convenient and fast method to disable the Camera device in Windows 10. However, if you are running a previous Windows 10 version which not yet include the controls to disable cameras in Settings, you can use an alternative method that involves Device Manager.

Disable Camera with Device Manager

1. Open the Device Manager.
2. Find the Camera entry in the device tree and expand it.
3. Right-click on your Camera device and select Disable device from the context menu.
4. Click on Yes in the confirmation dialog.
5. You have successfully disabled your camera.

Eventually, you may want to re-enabled the disabled Camera device. For that you can use any of the reviewed tools. Both Settings and Device Manager will allow to restore the camera functionality with ease.

How to Enable Camera in Windows 10

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Devices > Cameras.
3. Under the Cameras section on the right, click on the disabled Camera to select it.
4. Click on the Enable button.
5. Windows 10 will instantly enable the camera.

Finally, the similar can be done from the Device Manager tool, which you should use if the you don't have the Enable option in Settings in your Windows 10 version.

Enable Camera using Device Manager

1. Open the Device Manager.
2. Find the Camera entry in the device tree and expand it.
3. Right-click on your disabled Camera device and select Enable device from the context menu.
4. You have successfully re-enable the camera.

That's it.

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