need to disable webcam, how?

level200

Hi Guys

I'm buying my daughter a new laptop for christmas. Almost all come with a built in webcam. I need to disable the webcam so that my daughter cannot use it at all.

How would I do this?

John

tanith

Not sure if there is a way to disable it so your probably computer savvy daughter wouldn't be able to enable it again... find one that doesn't have a web-cam if its that vital

[Deleted User]

That might be quite tough, but you could possibly disable the webcam drivers that come with the laptop.. either that or find one without a webcam.. there must be some that don't have them.

macman

Put some superglue onto the lens? It won't be reversable though.
However if your daughter is determined to use a webcam, she will simply go out and buy/borrow a USB one.
So I would suggest that the best solution is not really a technical one.

TonyMMM

If it is Windows 7 - you could make give yourself an administrator account, remove the webcam drivers - and then create a User account for your daughter with no admin rights (which will prevent her installing them again) - however it will prevent her doing all sorts of other things too ....so I would go for the "find one without a webcam" option.

morganedge

macman wrote: »

Put some superglue onto the lens? It won't be reversable though.
However if your daughter is determined to use a webcam, she will simply go out and buy/borrow a USB one.
So I would suggest that the best solution is not really a technical one.

I thought exactly the same on all points.

JasX

you could google for the service manual to look up how to strip the thing down and see if its easy to get at an internal connection and physically disconnect it.

How easy this will prove and whether it'll be reversible will vary by model, also won;t do the warrranty any good. Why don;t you just buy one without a built in webcam?

Esoog

TonyMMM wrote: »

If it is Windows 7 - you could make give yourself an administrator account, remove the webcam drivers - and then create a User account for your daughter with no admin rights (which will prevent her installing them again) - however it will prevent her doing all sorts of other things too ....so I would go for the "find one without a webcam" option.

This is the "simplest" option, what are you like on Computers? Does the word Device Manager mean anything to you?

& again it can depend how much your Daughter knows about PCs too

serious_saver

I have an emachines laptop that I bought from tesco. The absolute cheapest I could buy with decent spec. The only things missing from it's acer counterpart (when I registered my computer I had to do it through acer who actually made it) were a built in card reader and the web cam but it was £150 cheaper.

googler

Paint over the lens?

JasX

googler wrote: »

Paint over the lens?

or get some kind of 'security/tamper evident' sticker/label on ebay or somewhere that will clearly show up if its been 'fiddled' with.

Easily reversible and with occasional checks will show up if its being abused.