CamWings

It is a well-known fact that malicious applications that manage to infiltrate a computer might also take screenshots and spy on the user via the connected webcams. CamWings comes as a simple solution to this issue, provides a quick and convenient means of disabling all the cameras that are connected to a computer.

Designed to be as simple as possible, CamWings consists of a one-window interface with a single button and a single purpose. There are no options to deal with, no secondary screens and no menus to browse. CamWings also runs in the system tray but there is no right-click menu or option to manage there either.

Users simply get a small window with a camera symbol on it. Clicking on that camera symbol Is what does the trick, blocking all the connected cameras and preventing the computer’s operating system (and, obviously, all the other applications) from detecting and using them without your knowledge.  While CamWings’ protection is active, no application can take a photo or record video via any of the connected webcams. Up to six cameras can be disabled at once.

By default, it launches in normal mode, revealing its simple GUI and importing the protection state from the previous session. Nevertheless, more tech-savvy users can control its behavior via the Windows console, by running it with one of the supported parameters. This is the way one can make CamWings run in hidden mode (by using the “-ghost” argument), with no visible GUI and in full protection mode. Evidently, this approach makes it suitable for automation scripts.

CamWings provides static protection and requires no installation and no restart to allow camera deactivation. It is a simple tool designed for the sole purpose of quickly disabling connected cameras, quick and easy. While simplicity is usually a good thing, not being able to get even the slightest control over the application’s actions (for instance, to choose which webcam to disable, if more than one is available) might be frustrating for more advanced users.