Without a doubt, privacy is a precious asset in this digital world in which we are enrolled. It is not alarmist to say that there are numerous applications and services that make use of our electronic devices to keep track of our actions and habits. An example of this is the use of the microphone on our Windows 10 computer.
Related: How to fix Webcam problems in Windows 10
It is true that many programs, such as Skype, need the use of your computer’s microphone in order to carry out voice communications. The problem is that the software can still have access to the microphone even if you are not using it. In addition, if that were not enough, you can also find programs and applications installed in Windows 10, which without knowing it, have access to your computer’s microphone.
However, one of the new features of the Windows 10 May 2019 update will inform you about any program that wants to access your microphone, however it should be noted that it is easy to ignore this warning. This feature works for both desktop programs and store applications.
How to know the apps or programs that are using the microphone of your Windows 10 computer at this precise moment.
If an application is using your microphone, you will see a microphone icon in the Windows notification area or also known as the system tray. This icon will be white in case you use the dark theme and black in case of using the Windows 10 clear theme.
When hovering over the microphone icon, Windows will show you a message indicating the program or application that is currently using the microphone of your Windows 10 computer. If more than one application or software is currently using the microphone of your computer, it will show you how many of them do.
On the other hand, if you want to know which are the apps or programs that are using your microphone at the same time, you should go to: Settings> Privacy> Microphone
If you don’t see the microphone icon in the notification area of the taskbar, make sure it is not in the system tray by clicking the up arrow icon. If the microphone icon is here and you would like it to be visible on the taskbar, you can drag and drop it into the notification area of the Windows 10 taskbar.
This icon only appears when an application is currently using or listening to your microphone. If you don’t see it, it means that no app is using your microphone at the moment.
How to know the apps or programs that have or have had access to your computer microphone with Windows 10.
Even if no application is using your microphone at this precise moment and therefore the icon is not displayed on the taskbar or system tray, you can still verify which applications or programs have been using your microphone.
For this you will have to go to: Settings> Privacy> Microphone in Windows 10 to open the microphone settings.
Scroll through the list of apps with permission to access your microphone and check below each one to see when was the last “Last Access” date and time. Windows will inform you of the exact date and time the application last accessed your microphone.
Important note: It should be noted that this setting should not be completely relied upon for desktop programs installed on your Windows 10. As Microsoft points out, desktop applications could interact directly with your microphone hardware and bypass privacy controls and Windows 10 monitoring.
In other words, a desktop app may be able to access your microphone but not appear on this list. An app may be accessing your microphone hardware at a lower level and the microphone icon may not appear.
Obviously Windows should detect access to the microphone from the vast majority of desktop applications. However, specially encoded RAT malware could evade detection.
How to remove access from a Windows 10 app to your computer’s microphone.
As we have mentioned, in the configuration section: Configuration> Privacy> Microphone. You will find the programs that currently have access to your microphone, but also those that have ever used it. However, this is not all, since it will also show the option to revoke future access to Windows apps (from the Microsoft store)
To do this you just have to focus on the section: Choose which Microsoft Store apps can access the microphone.
Under this section you will find a list of all the apps in the Microsoft store that can use your computer’s microphone.
Next to each of the apps on the list you can deactivate any of them that you do not want to have access to your Microphone by simply clicking on the switch.
As is evident, if you disable access to the microphone of an app and we open it to use it, possibly its functionality is limited, especially in what involves the microphone since it will not work.
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