How to see which apps are using your camera or microphone on Windows 11

If you're a little paranoid (or just cautious) and want to know which apps are accessing your camera or microphone, Windows 11 offers some useful tools to keep an eye on it. It's not very complicated, but I'll show you everything there is to know about it.

Camera on? Microphone on? Windows tells you everything!

When an app accesses your PC's camera, Windows 11 displays a small notification at the bottom of the screen that says Camera activated. In practical terms, this means that an application has activated your PC's camera. When the application stops using the camera, you will see another notification stating Camera disabled. Additionally, on many computers, the light next to the physical camera will turn on, indicating that the camera is in use.

If you don't have this notification, it is possible to activate it. by following this tutorial which will immediately allow you to see if an application is using your camera.

When an application starts using your PC's microphone, a small microphone icon appears in the taskbar (bottom right). Hover over this icon to see which application is using your microphone.

See which apps have recently used your camera or microphone

To get a quick overview of the applications that have recently accessed your PC's camera or microphone, simply go to the Settings. For that :

1. Press Windows + i to open the Settings.
2. Go to the section Confidentialité et sécurité.
3. Click on Camera ou Microphone in the section App permissions.

There, look for the section recent activity. You will see the list of apps, the date, And even the exact time which they accessed your camera or microphone.

Prevent an app from accessing your camera or microphone

If you don't want an app to be able to access your camera or microphone, you need to go to Settings to disable access for that app.

1. Go back to the Settings (Windows+i).
2. Click on Confidentialité et sécuritéthen Camera ou Microphone.

3. In the section Allow apps to access your camera/microphoneYou will see a list of apps that can and cannot access your camera/microphone. For each one, you can enable or disable access with a simple switch.
4. And if you want cut everything for everyone, just turn off the main switch at the very top (Allow apps to access your microphone/camera).

Block websites from accessing your camera or microphone

If you suspect that a website is accessing your camera or microphone in a web browser, you can disable camera or microphone access for all sites or on a site-by-site basis. Here's how to do this on major browsers:

Google Chrome

1. Click on three small dots top right > Settings.
2. Go to Confidentialité et sécurité > Site Settings > Camera ou Microphone.

There you have two options:

• To disable camera or microphone access on a site-by-site basis, use the first option (Sites may ask to use your camera) and refuse when the site asks for permission.
• To disable access for all sites, enable the option Do not allow sites to use your camera/microphone.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Click on three lines (the hamburger menu) > Settings.
2. In Privacy and security, go down to Permissions.
3. Click on Settings next to Camera or Microphone.

Like on Chrome, you can block sites one by one when they ask for permission and you should see the blocked sites there.

Otherwise, you can check the option Block new requests for access to your camera/microphone and click on Save Changes to block all future requests.

Microsoft Edge

1. Click on three points top right > Settings.
2. Go to Cookie policy and site permissions > All permissions > Camera ou Microphone.
3. There too, you can block sites individually or disable access globally using the option Ask me before access (recommended) :
   • If enabled, each site will ask you for permission
   • If the option is disabled, blocking will occur for all sites.

How to Completely Disable Camera and Microphone on Windows 11

If you don't want apps or system utilities to access your camera or microphone, you can disable these devices from the Gestionnaire de périphériquesThis will have the same effect as if you had unplugged your camera or microphone from your computer.

1. Press Windows + S, type Gestionnaire de périphériques, and open it.
2. For the camera: expand the section Image acquisition device.
3. For the microphone: go to Audio inputs and outputs.
4. Right-click on the affected device > Deactivate the device > Confirm with Yes.

And there you have it, your hardware is now "unplugged." To reactivate it, simply return to the same location and click on Activate the device.

And that's how to find out which apps are accessing your camera or microphone. So, there are some Windows 11 privacy settings you might want to adjust to improve your privacy on your PC.