In our increasingly mobile and technology-driven world, videoconferencing is becoming popular, especially for companies that have employees working from home. There are many services and programs available to host and join a videoconferencing call and a webcam is used to show your live video.
For help with installing, testing, and using a computer webcam, and determine if your laptop has a built-in webcam, select a link below.
Today, most webcams are universal, meaning they work on almost any computer. Follow the steps below to connect and install a webcam on your computer.
If your operating system does not automatically install the drivers, you can go to the webcam manufacturer's website and download the necessary drivers. Install the downloaded drivers on your computer.
To test if your webcam is working, follow these steps.
If your computer has Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11, you can use the Camera app to test the built-in webcam. To open the Camera app, follow these steps.
Tip
You can use the Camera app to record videos and take pictures of yourself or anything in front of the webcam.
On a computer running macOS, you can test your webcam using the Photobooth app, located in your Applications folder. You can use it to take photos or videos using an attached webcam.
On a computer running Linux, you can test your webcam using the cheese utility. It is available in most package managers. For example, to install it on Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint, you can install it using apt.
sudo apt install cheese
To activate the webcam whenever it detects motion, use the motion utility.
sudo apt install motion
After you have connected and installed a webcam on your computer, you can use it to show video of yourself on video conferencing services and software. Popular services and software for videoconferencing include Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, and Zoom.
When you connect to a conference call using videoconferencing services or software, you can activate the webcam to display live video. The service or software should have a button with what looks like a video camera on it. Examples of the button are shown in the picture.
Click the video camera button to turn on the webcam and activate video sharing. Depending on the videoconferencing service or software, the live video sharing starts immediately or displays a preview of the video, so you can see how it looks. If a preview is displayed first, click the option for "Start Video" or something similar to begin sharing the live video to others on the videoconferencing call.
Using an external webcam with a laptop is possible, but sometimes a bit more clunky if placed on top of the laptop screen. The laptop screen is very thin, causing an external webcam to be less stable when mounted to the top of the screen.
Today, some laptops feature a built-in webcam, eliminating the need for an external webcam. However, the built-in webcam is not easy to see and easy to miss. In most cases, laptop webcams are located in the middle of the top edge of your laptop screen, in the plastic casing.
The built-in webcam is usually 1/2" or less in size. It may be a small, dark circle, or it may be a small dark square, with a slightly less dark circle inside it. Pictured below are two examples of a built-in webcam on the top edge of a laptop screen.
If your laptop has a feature similar to the pictures above, your laptop likely has a built-in webcam.
With high quality products and considerate service, we will work together with you to enhance your business and improve the efficiency. Please don't hesitate to contact us to get more details of USB camera.