Many of today's laptops and netbooks have at their disposal the entire technological arsenal for comfortable work on the Internet. And, of course, it cannot do without the built-in camera, thanks to which the user can arrange video conferences and send photos and videos to his friends. But not all users know how to turn on the camera on a laptop. In this article you can find the answer to this question.
First you need to make sure that the camera is actually mounted on the laptop. It is located most often in the central part of the upper half of the laptop, directly above the display of the device. Sometimes manufacturers embed a small LED next to it (it will signal that the camera is turned on) or make an inscription “Webcam” or “DigiCam” next to the device’s eye. If you could not find such signs of a camera, you can look for information about it in the passport or laptop operating instructions. After that, you can move on to the question of how to turn on the camera on a laptop.
Most often, the camera built into the device is launched by pressing a simple key combination. For example, on almost all Asus laptops this happens with the combination of “Fn + V” (at the same time, you can easily find the image of the camera on the “V” key). But do not despair if you could not find this combination on your device. There are several more options on how to turn on the camera on a laptop.
Firstly, you need to make sure that all the drivers and software for the integrated camera are installed. If any of the software is missing, you will need to go to the manufacturer’s website and download all the missing utilities and programs from there. Most often, laptops from popular world brands use such software as “Willing Webcam”, “Webcam Plus!” and “Active WebCam,” but other software may be suitable for a particular laptop model. After installing all the necessary drivers, the camera will turn on automatically immediately after starting the corresponding program.
But how to turn on the camera in a laptop, if after installing all the necessary software it does not want to start? You can try to run the installed program manually. To do this, click on its shortcut or run the corresponding utility from the start menu. The camera on a laptop or netbook in most cases immediately turns on after that.
Another sure way to make the built-in camera work is to turn it on from the “Control Panel” (the user will find it by left-clicking the famous “Start” menu). In the "Control Panel" we find a section called "Scanners and Cameras" and in it we select the built-in camera. After starting this device should turn on immediately.
If none of the above methods helped to achieve the goal, you can use one of the utilities from third-party developers. Hundreds of such programs can be easily found on the Internet, but it is advisable to check all downloaded files with antivirus before launching them. You can also visit the official website of the manufacturer of your laptop. Often, on this resource you can find information about which of the third-party programs are ideal for a particular device model.
It should not be forgotten that in some cases the user does not even have to puzzle over how to turn on the camera on a laptop. Developers of popular programs for communicating via the Internet have already taken care of this. For example, after installing and running one of the most popular communication programs called “Skype”, the laptop’s built-in camera will be launched automatically.