Every widget here is a real recording from the app, at the size it runs.
Camera In UseA taskbar widget for Windows 10 and 11Pro
Laptops have a light next to the lens. Desktops mostly don't, external cameras vary, and neither tells you which program is responsible — so the honest answer to "is my camera on right now" has been to unplug it. This puts the answer on the taskbar: a lens that is dark when nothing is watching and lit when something is, with the name of the app that turned it on underneath, and how long it has been watching. The off state is not a blank — it names the last app to use the camera and when it finished, so "was anything on while I was away from the desk" is a glance rather than an investigation. The reading comes from the same place Windows builds its own privacy indicator, which means this widget never opens the camera and cannot see a single frame — it is reading a ledger, not looking through the lens.
Where it runs
What it does
- A lens that lights when something is watching, dark when nothing is
- Names the app that turned the camera on, and how long it's been watching
- When it's off, says who used it last and when — the question you have later
- Lists every app holding the camera at once, when it's more than one
- Reads the same ledger Windows' own privacy indicator uses
- Never opens the camera, never touches the driver, cannot see a frame
- Says plainly what it can't see, instead of implying it sees everything
- Dim right down when the camera is off, if you'd rather it kept quiet
- Follows the taskbar's own colour, and re-matches when the theme changes
What you can change
- When the camera is off
- Second line
- Wording
Put it on your desktop
Free download — this one needs Pro to run.
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