How to access advanced settings for the integrated webcam on Windows 10
Integrated webcams on laptops may or may not come with a special companion app installed on the laptop to control it. You will probably find an app to control the integrated webcam if you have a Dell or HP device but these apps don’t offer much in terms of settings for the camera. These apps are normally tools for recording video or capturing photos. You’ll find that many third-party tools offer you far more control over the camera than the stock camera apps. Here’s how you can access advanced settings for the integrated webcam on Windows 10.
Install FFMPEG
In order to access advanced settings for the integrated webcam on Windows 10, you need FFMPEG. It’s a command-line tool for handling media files, streams, and interacting with media devices, among other things. It is exceptionally powerful, so much so that many advanced media editing programs like Audacity rely on it. Go ahead and download the tool and extract the zip file.
Find webcam name
Once you’ve extracted FFMPEG, you need to open a command prompt window in the bin folder where the EXE is located. To open the command prompt window, you can use either the cd command, or you can open the bin folder in File Explorer and enter ‘cmd’ in the location bar, and tap enter.
If you’d like to use the cd command, use it as follows.
Syntax
cd "complete path to bin folder"
Example
cd "C:\Users\fatiw\Desktop\ffmpeg-20191219-99f505d-win64-static\bin"
Once you’re in the bin folder, run the following command to find the name for your webcam.
ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy -hide_banner
The command will return the name of several devices and you’ll need to read them all to determine which is your webcam.
Open advanced settings
In the same command prompt window, run the following command but replace “Device Name” with the name of your integrated webcam.
Syntax
ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="Device name"
Example
ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="Integrated Webcam"
Tap enter and the advanced settings window for your webcam will open.
Changing webcam settings
The settings that you see in the window that opens will differ based on the webcam on your system. The options that are greyed out or inactive are settings that you cannot change for the camera you have on your laptop. Most settings will have a default value but you might have the option to allow them to change automatically based on what input the camera is getting. Click ‘Apply’ after making changes and the quality of the camera feed will change throughout all apps that access it on your Windows 10 PC. If you find your new settings are not as good as the default ones, you can click the ‘Default’ button and reset them to their default values. Don’t forget to click Apply afterward.
Thanks to this I was able to create a .bat file to directly access these settings
Never left a comment on a website like this, but this genuinely helped me: thanks!
Hello,
I am using Windows 10, and cannot find Integrated Webcam among the devices via this method. I had read somewhere that Win10 no longer uses DShow natively, but uses its own Windows API (formerly Win32). Unfortunately, I have no idea of what format I should put instead, after “-f”; or whether that would even work.
Is there possibly a workaround, then?
You, sir, are more helpful than you probably realize. I have a crappy AUKEY webcam that was completely overexposing the image. Using your approach above I was able to open the settings (the camera came with zero software) and disable auto-exposure. The webcam image is now quite acceptable. Thank you for posting these instructions.
I have literally spent 40+ hours trying to figure out how to control my webcam settings. It use to be so easy before Microsoft jacked things up. You have rescued me. THANK YOU!!!!!
You are a hero! Works perfect on the Microsoft Surface Pro.
I needed a way to disable auto exposure because the screen keeps on flashing black on 3rd party video call applications.
this is great. thank you! is there a way to make a Windows “shortcut” or alias for this settings window?