How to Configure the PC Webcam from Windows 10

Keep in mind that as with the microphone that we usually install on computers, the webcam is a basic element for many. In the same way that most users look for a screen of a certain size and high resolution, others see that for example it has a good sound system installed.

And what about elements of the importance of the processor, hard drives or RAM that we are going to find as standard. But at the same time, as we mentioned, some give a very high importance to the computer’s webcam , whether it is integrated, or we connect it via USB or WiFi. That is why in these same lines we are going to show you how to configure the webcam we are talking about, in the best way.

Here we are not only talking about activating or deactivating it from the operating system , but about accessing its most basic parameters, and customizing them in detail. As you may already know, you can always turn it off or start it from the Windows Settings application. Specifically, you can do this from the Privacy / Camera section.

Common uses of the webcam in Windows

We tell you all this that we are going to talk about, due to the importance that this particular component has acquired over time. There are many users who use the webcam constantly, either for one thing or another. Either to make videoconferences, play games, record your own videos, etc .; they are elements that are used in a habitual way. It is precisely for all this that a good configuration of them will not gain in user experience in most cases.

Hence, sometimes it would not hurt to be able to access the configuration parameters of this device. This will allow us to adapt its internal functioning to what we really need in each case. In addition, this is something that we can achieve in a simple way, as we will see.

Access advanced webcam settings

First of all, as you may have already noticed, the webcams built into the laptops may or may not come with a special application to control it. It is likely that we will find the same in certain brands of equipment, but this is not always the case. On the contrary, those who add a camera to their equipment in an additional way, be it USB or WiFi, for example, usually add their own control software. But of course, this one does not offer much to choose from when it comes to customization parameters. These usually help us when recording video or capturing photos, but little else.

In fact, many third-party tools do not offer much more control over the webcam than the original applications. But be that as it may, now we will explain how to configure the webcam that we install in Windows by accessing its advanced settings from Windows 10 .

Install the FFMPEG multimedia codec

In order to achieve this that we tell you, access the webcam settings , we need FFMPEG. Here we talk about a tool that we use from the command line to work with multimedia files, among other things. Therefore, initially what we do is download everything from this link .

This will come in a compressed file that we will have to extract in a folder to, for example, place it on the C: drive. We tell you to place it because then we have to access it, but from a command prompt window.

Specifically, we have to locate ourselves in the folder called BIN, which is where the executable of the codec that interests us is found here. Therefore, using the CMD command in the search box, we open a command prompt window and access the folder where the FFMPEG EXE is located. This is something we can do using the CD command as in the case that we expose you below:

cd C:/ffmpeg/bin

Locate the name of the webcam in Windows 10

Next, once we have on the screen the BIN folder with the three codecs that we downloaded earlier, we are going to find the real name of the webcam. By this we mean how the Redmond operating system knows it so that it can be opened and configured later. To do this, again from the command line, we write the following command:

ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy -hide_banner

This, after a few seconds, will return a list of devices installed on the computer itself. Among them we find the webcam, which is the one we are looking for here, for example in our case it is called HD Webcam.

Well, once we know the name by which Windows knows the device, let’s go on to configure the webcam, which is what we are looking for here. Therefore, also from the same command prompt window, we have to write the following command that will open the configuration we are looking for:

ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="HD Webcam"

In this specific case we have used the name HD Webcam in quotes, where each user must enter the one returned by the system on their computer.

How to configure the webcam in Windows

After a few seconds, a new window will appear on the screen with the parameters of the webcam we are looking for.

Say that the new window that opens is different depending on the camera of the equipment , whether of one type or another. In this way we must bear in mind that the options that are in gray are inactive and therefore are settings that we cannot customize in our specific model. We see a good number of parameters that we can change, most with a default value. At the top of the window, we see two main tabs, Video Render Amplifier and Camera Control.

Although many of these parameters of both tabs come with a predefined value that we can change, we can also set it as automatic . All this thanks to the Auto box that is located to the right of each one of them. For example, here we can adjust the brightness , contrast, saturation, sharpness , gamma, etc. Meanwhile we could say that the Camera Control parameters will be available for the most advanced devices of this type.

And it is that in the second tab we customize aspects such as aperture, focus , inclination and rotation , etc. Many of them are not usually available on the most basic webcams. To finish we only have to click on Apply and then OK so that the changes made are saved.