Disable Integrated Camera or Webcam in Windows  

Matthew Wai said:

Why not connect it to a USB hub with Individual on-off switches? Flipping a switch is much more convenient than using a small stamp, label, or dark tape.

Missed it, thought the subject meant the camera built into the display panel on a Notebook but guess it could be a built-in camera on an All-in-One or some monitors.

Matthew Wai said:

Why not connect it to a USB hub with Individual on-off switches? Flipping a switch is much more convenient than using a small stamp, label, or dark tape.

Especially if the webcam has an integrated microphone.

Hi Shawn,
do you think you can create a "right-click menu" shortcut to disable/enable camera? It will be very convenient rather than going through all the windows each time. :)

badrobot said:

Hi Shawn,
do you think you can create a "right-click menu" shortcut to disable/enable camera? It will be very convenient rather than going through all the windows each time. :)

I could use commands from the registry changes made in option 2 or 7 below for a context menu, but it doesn't stop anything already currently using the camera until after it's closed.

Allow or Deny OS and Apps Access to Camera in Windows 10

Brink said:

I could use commands from the registry changes made in option 2 or 7 below for a context menu, but it doesn't stop anything already currently using the camera until after it's closed.

Allow or Deny OS and Apps Access to Camera in Windows 10

Ok, I'll have a look at that. Thanks!

This is my other hardware solution I came up with.

Thanks to my 9 yr old daughter for the hardware donation.

That image clears up my thought about the "Disable Integrated Camera or Webcam in Windows".

Berton said:

That image clears up my thought about the "Disable Integrated Camera or Webcam in Windows".

Haha... bottom line is, it works. :)

Matthew Wai said:

I have created the attached script to disable/enable the camera. I can create another script so that it can be run via a context-menu shortcut similar to this one: How to Add Create Elevated Shortcut to New Context Menu in Windows 10

Click here to download "Turn_on_or_off_the_camera.bat"

Thank you Matthew.

What did you use to enforce enable/disable camera after changing the registry value?

What does the powercfg -h on command to enable hibernate in your .bat to turn on the camera suppose to do?

When I was testing this, if the camera was already being used say by the Camera app, changing the registry value to disable the camera had no effect until after anything using the camera was closed.

Just curious because I've been hunting what will enforce it to make it a true enable/disable option no matter if the camera is currently in use or not.