Everything related to privacy and security in the computers we use at the moment is something basic for most users. For all of this, Windows install antivirus and take certain precautions to protect your computers and data against possible attacks.
But what you have to keep in mind is that these can reach us by means that we do not even expect, as we will show you here. Keep in mind that one of the great concerns that plague us on computers these days is identity theft or data that compromises us in some way. And here we are not only talking about viruses and the like, since the damage can come to us in other ways. The elements that we are going to talk about at this time serve as an example.
Specifically, we refer to two components that either come pre-installed on the PC, or we install them ourselves later. We refer to something as common as the webcam and the microphone, something that most of us have installed on our PC . They are two hardware components that we generally use on a regular basis, more in these times. However, if this is not the case, as it also happens in many cases, we may be interested in blocking them, more than anything for security and privacy.
How to block the webcam in Windows
To start, we will talk about the webcam that many of us have on the team. It may be the case that we have connected one of these via USB to the PC, or that it is already incorporated into it. This is something more than usual in most laptops, for example. But something that perhaps many of these users have not thought is that this built-in webcam can translate into a significant security breach in our device.
This is something that could significantly affect our privacy, so if we do not use it normally, we must know that it is possible to block it in Windows 10 . We can do this because today there are many techniques and types of malware that can control our webcam without our consent. For all this, it is convenient to take measures so that nobody can spy on us through it without us noticing. It is evident that this would put at risk both our privacy and our security in the day to day with the equipment .
Block webcam in Windows 10 from Settings
We have several ways to carry out this that we comment on, block the webcam in Windows 10. The first of them is from the System Configuration application , a section that we access through the Win + I key combination. In the window that appears, we opted for the Privacy option.
Once in the window that appears, on the left side of it we go to the Permissions section of the application where we select the Camera . Now we only have to go to the option to Allow applications to access the camera, a selector that we deactivate.
On the other hand, you have to know that when you go down a bit in this same window, we find the option to Choose which Microsoft Store applications can access the camera. From here, we can activate or deactivate which applications can or cannot access the camera. As you can imagine, this will allow us to specify more specifically the programs that will be able to access this component, and those that will not. In this way we will have much more control in this section of privacy. Say that we can do the same with desktop applications in this same window.
Lock the Webcam from Device Manager
Another way to do this is found in the Device Manager , a section that we access by right-clicking on the Start menu. Once we access this section that we comment on, we will see on the screen a list with the devices installed on the PC . These are organized in different sections, so in this case we have to look for one called Cameras, where we double click to display its content.
It will be here where we will see the model of the webcam that we have installed, so we right-click on that name. Next, in the drop-down menu that appears, we no longer have to choose the Properties option, so that in the Controller tab we click on Disable device.
Disable webcam with third-party programs
As we have seen, this is a camera locking process that we can easily carry out in Windows itself. But it is also something that we can carry out with third-party applications . An example of all this is the program called Riot Isolator that we can download from this link . To say that this is a free application that presents us with a menu of four options of various kinds.
From it we can do a safe formatting of the PC, among other things. But what interests us is found in the Toolbox option, where we see that we have the possibility to avoid unauthorized screenshots. In this way, what we achieve is to avoid remote control of the webcam.
We find something similar with the WebCam On-Off program that we candownload from here . Thus, as its name suggests, we can also control the activation and deactivation of this component in a simple way.
How to disable the microphone in Windows 10
In the event that we also want to deactivate the microphone that we have installed on the computer, we also have several ways to do it in Windows .
Disable the microphone from Settings
As we told you before with the case of the webcam, we can also do if we refer to this other component. Therefore, we open the Windows Settings window again through the Win + I key combination, and then go to the Privacy section. In the left panel we find the entry called Microphone, where we find a selector that reads Allow applications to access the microphone, something that we deactivate.
As happened with the webcam, if we go down a bit in this same window, we will see that we also have the possibility to choose the applications that can use this component. This way we control more the use of the microphone in Windows but individually. This is something we do for both UWP and Win32 .
Disable the microphone from Device Manager
As we have seen previously, the Redmond operating system allows us to activate and deactivate hardware elements very easily. Regarding the microphone that concerns us at the moment, this is something that we can also do from the Device Manager.
To do this again, we click the right mouse button on the Start menu and open this component. Now what we have to locate in the section called Audio inputs and outputs, which we display. Here we will see the input corresponding to the microphone, which is the one that interests us in this case.
Therefore, in order to deactivate it, we only have to click on it with the secondary button and select the option to Disable device.