Disabling the built-in camera

10 Jun 2011

For military and other tactical applications, it may be desired to disable the built-in camera on the rugged handheld computer. Some untested potential methods to do this are listed below.

The Windows registry can be modified such as by using one of the Registry Editors for Windows Mobile as listed at the following web page.

Windows CE/Mobile registry editors

You would need to add or change the following registry key.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Pictures\Camera\OEM] "DisableCamera"=dword:1

Also delete the following keys and sub-keys

• Mesa - [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\QciBus]
• Allegro 2 and Archer 2 - [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\Camera
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\DirectShow\Capture]
  • Mesa - "Dll" DWORD "Mesa_Camera.dll"
  • Allegro 2 and Archer 2 - "Dll" DWORD Camera.dll"

     

These changes could be made somewhat permanent (to automatically reload after performing a Clean Boot (set factory defaults)) using the information provided in our Software Branding Customization Guide or in the documents at the bottom of the following web page.

Locking down the rugged handheld