Webcams used to come as separate computer peripherals that you had to attach to your computer via a USB port. But newer models of notebooks, laptops and even the desktop computer screens come in-built with a camera. These cameras have multiple uses – they can be used to record videos, chat online, take pictures, can be used to sign-in for Windows using face recognition technology and more. But the problem with in-built cameras is that nobody bothers to switch them off. Actually some of the notebooks come with a switch to turn the camera on or off, but others do not have any such switch.
An always-on camera can cause serious problems if hackers get access to it. They can take your pictures or make videos without you ever knowing about it. In the past, hackers have take over the victim’s webcam and taken pictures in very compromised situations to later blackmail them.
If you do not have any physical switch to turn the web cam off or it is located in a uncomfortable position, then you can use the “Webcam On-Off” program to quickly disable or enable the camera.
The Webcam On-Off is a small portable tool that can be used to turn off the camera when not in use. The program has a very simple interface. In order to turn the webcam off, all you have to do is click on the Disable button. Similarly, to turn it back on, you can click on the Enable button. The on or off status of the webcam is displayed clearly in the program itself.
The Webcam On-Off program turns off the webcam by disabling the related device driver for the webcam device. This works for the standard webcams but it fails for some other cameras that use their own special software to connect to the camera. For example, if you are using DroidCam to connect to your Android smartphone’s camera then Webcam On-Off fails to work. In these situations, you can open the device manager and disable the webcam as explained in one of our previous article : how to disable webcam in Windows & avoid webcam getting hacked.
Conclusion: Webcam On-Off is a simple utility to quickly turn off the webcam in Windows. You can use it to switch off your webcam, especially if your computer does not provide any physical switch to toggle the webcam on or off.
You can download Webcam On-Off from http://www.sordum.org/.