Video calls have become an essential form of communication, both for work and on a personal level. In this sense, laptops are perfect tools, since they include both elements endogenously and we do not have to connect external devices to be able to make video calls.
Despite the ease of having the camera and mic integrated in a single device, it is possible that at some point you want to disconnect one or both elements of your computer. If this is your case, let's see what steps you have to follow to do it on Windows laptops and also on Macbook laptops.
Disable the microphone in Windows
Microsoft's operating system allows you to connect and disconnect these elements very easily thanks to its Device Manager tool
To access here:
- Right-click on the Windows 10 icon on the Start menu. You can also press the Win + X keys on your keyboard.
- Select the "Device Manager" option from the options shown.
- A new window will open showing all the devices that your computer includes: controllers, monitors, disk drives, batteries, etc.
- Choose " Audio inputs and outputs"
- Select the microphone that appears on your computer.
- To disable it, you can click on the red cross in the upper menu or click on the device name with the right mouse button and choose "disable".
Disable the camera in Windows
The steps to follow to enable a camera on a Windows laptop are almost identical to the steps we just saw with the microphone.
Let's go back to the Windows Device Manager.
- Right-click on the Windows 10 icon from the Start menu.
- Select the "Device Manager" from the options that appear in the list.
- A window will open with a tree whose root is the name of your computer. It shows all the devices that make up the team.
- Choose at this point "Cameras"
- Select the name of the camera that appears on your computer.
- To disable the camera you have two options: either you can click on the red cross in the top menu or click on the device name with the right mouse button and select "disable".
If you want to use the camera or microphone in Windows again, follow the same steps that you have executed to disable them, and instead of choosing the "Disable" option, choose the " Enable" option.
Disable the microphone on a MacBook
In the case of Apple laptops, the procedure is just as simple as the one we have just seen in Windows, but it does not consist of deactivating the microphone or the camera completely, but rather of removing permissions from the applications that can access them. First, we go to the main menu of the computer by clicking on the apple icon.
- Select "System Preferences"
- Click on "Security and privacy"
- Click on "Privacy"
- Select "Microphone."
- Uncheck the app box (s) to deny you access to the microphone.
Whenever you deny an app access to the microphone, it will ask you if you want to activate it again the next time you use it
Disable the camera on a MacBook
In this case you have two options, either from the settings denying the permission to the applications or from the parental control.
Deny permission to apps
If you choose the first option, the itinerary is as follows:
- Select "System Preferences"
- Click on "Security and privacy"
- Click on "Privacy"
- Select "Camera."
- Uncheck the app box (s) to deny you access to the camera.
As with the microphone, whenever you deny access to the camera to an app, it will ask you if you want to activate it again the next time you use it.
If at any time you want a specific application or all those that you have deactivated to have access to the camera again, you just have to go back over these same steps and check each of the application boxes again.
From parental control
The parental controls feature on a MacBook provides you with an easy way to completely turn off the camera in one user account on the laptop, but allow the camera to function normally in other user accounts.
To do so, click on the apple icon.
- Select "System Preferences"
- Click on "Parental Control"
- Select the user account for which you want to deactivate the camera
- Click on the Applications tab and uncheck the option "Allow use of the camera."
If at any time you want to reverse this process, you will simply have to follow these same steps and re-check the "Allow use of the camera" box.
Is it advisable to deactivate the camera and the microphone?
In general, it is advisable to disable these devices when we are not using them. The reason is, beyond privacy, security. There are different techniques and malware that can allow remote control of all equipment, including the camera or microphone. Once the malware has been installed on the computer, the attacker could see through the camera or even take pictures of what can be seen through it.
For this reason, in addition to keeping these two devices disabled, we must also be careful with the permissions we grant to third-party applications, since without realizing it we may be putting both our privacy and our security at risk.
In the case of Apple, the controls are focused directly on giving or denying permissions to applications. In Windows in the "Privacy" section. we have the option "Permission of the application". Here, selecting the "Camera" function, we will find another that says "Allow applications to access the camera . " Try to keep it always activated so that you can directly manage which applications may or may not have access to the camera.
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