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Since the update to 1709 I keep getting every few hours “Host process for windows tasks is using the webcam”.
Is this safe and normal?
I have the HP Envy running windows 10 pro.
Regards
Stan.
Moved from: (Windows / Windows 10 / Security & privacy)
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi all... Update
I have Kaspersky internet security and it's that is displaying the report so If you have Kaspersky internet security that telling you the web cam is been used so this is what I did: -
Go to windows settings… Privacy… Camera… then I turned off “Let apps use my camera hardware” and up to now it’s never reported web cam been used up to now after about 10 hours.
hope that helps us all.
regards
Stan.
I assume you have Kaspersky security software. I noticed this too after 1709. I'm not 100% certain what's going on here. My best guess is there is a bug buried somewhere polling the webcam; or the engineers made a change that causes this. At this point in time, if you prevent webcam access to all programs via Kaspersky, the MS Store no longer loads pages.
I have the exact same issue, any solutions?
You can turn off anything you wish in Settings> Privacy> I dont use my webcam for anything. It has been turned off in the privacy settings for a year with no ill effects. or if you don't want to turn it off you can choose apps there that you want to give permission to use. If you login to windows with your webcam it would probably be a bad idea to totally turn it off. What was meant before about the file in system 32 is you need to open task manager and find the task that is using the cam then right click it and click on go to file location to find out where the file resides and its properties.. Hope this helps.
Similar problem was explained in following link by Varelse:
It is part of the Telemetry utilities that collects usage/errors of your system and reports back to Microsoft. However, there are multiple processes of this feature and the Device Census app is just one process that collects the information. When all of the data collection is done, another app sends the data to MS if you have approved the "Feedback" feature.
If you disable the Feedback option, that only stops it from sending the data to Microsoft. It doesn't disable the data collecting apps, which is why you still get the pop-up message even though the Feedback option is off.
To disable the data collection, you have to disable the scheduled tasks that starts those processes. Normally the task runs at 3am but if your computer isn't on, it runs when you log in.
In the search box, type "Task Scheduler" or select Start > Windows Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler.
Expand the Task Scheduler Library folder tree to /Microsoft/Windows/Device Information/. Here you will find the "Device" task. Right click the task and choose "Disable".
You might want to look at the other "Feedback" tasks and possibly disable them if you don't want them running.
/Microsoft/Windows/Application Experience//Microsoft/Windows/Customer Experience Improvement Program/
/Microsoft/Windows/Feedback/
/Microsoft/XblGameSave/
Hope that helps!
