Enable or Disable Camera On Off OSD Notifications in Windows 10

How to Enable or Disable Camera On Off OSD Notifications in Windows 10

When a web camera is used by some app on your Desktop PC, tablet, or laptop, its LED indicator turns on by default to notify you that the camera is in use. However, in some situations you might not notice the LED light. For example, it can be just broken, covered with something, or when the LED notification is disabled by you or a third-party.

It is possible to enable on-screen display notifications for the Camera that will appear every time you turn on or off the webcam. There is a special option in Windows 10 that is designed to work in situations when the physical LED light is not available.  However, the option is hidden in the Registry, and has no option to enable or disable it in the GUI. To enable it, you must be signed in as an administrator.

Here is how Camera on and Camera off on-screen display notifications look.

This post will show you how to enable or disable Camera on and Camera off OSD notifications in Windows 10.

To Enable or Disable Camera On Off OSD Notifications in Windows 10

1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OEM\Device\Capture
See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
3. On the right, modify or create a new 32-Bit DWORD value NoPhysicalCameraLED.
   Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value.
4. Set its value data to 1 to enable OSD notifications for Camera.
5. Set its value data to 0 to disable OSD notifications for Camera.
6. You are done!

Now, you can open some app, let's say the built-in Camera, to test the changes you made. If you don't immediately see on-screen display notifications when using the Camera app, try to restart Windows 10.

To save your time, I've prepared ready-to-use Registry files. You can download them here:

Download Registry Files

The undo tweak is included.