Last updated: October 22, 2022
Do you care about your privacy? Well be aware that there are hacking techniques that can activate your webcam or microphone without your knowledge. Indeed, these expose your privacy and the security of your data to a huge risk.
When it comes to webcam security, it's easy! Cover the eye of the camera with a sticker and you're done. However, this technique will not work for microphones.
So the best solution is to completely disable the microphone on Windows 10. Let's see how to do it step by step.
Disable the microphone in Windows 10
There are several ways to mute the microphone in Windows 10 from different settings locations. Let's take a look.
Use Device Manager
Follow the steps below to turn off the microphone on your Windows 10 computer.
- First, right click on My Computer [This PC]. From the drop-down menu, select Properties. And open Device Manager.
- Then in the Device Manager window, click on Audio inputs and outputs. You should be able to see your microphone listed in the extended list.
- Then right click on Microphone and select Deactivate the device.
- Finally, a dialog box prompts you with a warning. Click Yes and your microphone will no longer work.
You can follow the same steps to activate your microphone again.
Disable the microphone in the privacy settings
So far I have shown you the steps that mute the microphone on the whole system.
Privacy settings for Windows 10 also allow you to mute the microphone but only for your account.
For that, I invite you to follow these simple steps:
- Click on the Start menu and open Settings, symbolized by a cogwheel.
- Then choose the Privacy function.
- You arrive on the "General" section of the privacy settings. In the left column, you should see an option called Microphone. Select it.
- If you want to permanently disable your PC's microphone, click the Change button. In the small window that appears, set the microphone to Off.
- You are also able to partially disable the microphone, either by only allowing Windows to access the microphone or by manually selecting which applications can use it.
Disable the microphone using Registry Editor
And for the hackers, here's another quick technique to turn off your PC's mic completely.
- Open the Windows registry by pressing the key Win+ R.
- Then type regedit.
- Then click on the drop-down menu of the following path: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ MMDevices \ Audio \ Capture".
- You should see mixed numbers and letters. Each set of numbers will have its own properties. After clicking on each one, find the Microphone option in the right pane.
- When you have found the set of numbers with the microphone option, click below.
- Then when you see the DeviceState option, double click on it.
- Finally, to turn off the mic, the value data should be 10000001.