If you’re like most people, you probably use your computer’s webcam to take photos and record videos for fun or to capture important moments. But did you know that you can also use your webcam to do some serious work? Here are five ways to use your webcam to get the job done:

  1. Use Your Webcam as a Security Camera If you have a computer with a built-in webcam, you can use it as a security camera. Just set up the camera so that it’s pointing at the area of your home or office that you want to monitor, and then connect it to your computer using an USB cable. You can then view live footage on your computer or send alerts when something happens in the camera’s view.
  2. Use Your Webcam as a Photo Booth If you have a group of friends who always seem to be taking photos of each other at weddings and other events, set up a photo booth using your computer’s webcam. Just set up the booth in whatever location is convenient for your group, and then have everyone take turns posing in front of the camera. You can then save all of the photos taken in the booth as individual files or create an album using software like Picasa or Photoshop Elements.
  3. Use Your Webcam as an Office Tool If you’re working from home, having access to your office tools from anywhere in the world is huge! You can use your webcam to video call into your office or even type documents onscreen while talking on the phone. Just make sure that both devices are connected to the internet via an appropriate network connection (Wi-Fi is usually fine). And if you need more than one screen for working on different projects simultaneously, consider purchasing a dual-screen laptop stand like this one from Amazon.com.
  4. Use Your Webcam as a Video Conferencing Tool If there’s someone important that you need to talk with but don’t want ..

Whether you have a laptop with an integrated camera or a webcam that plug in via USB, you can use the applications included modern operating systems to easily take photos and record videos. With Windows 10, this is now built into Windows and no longer requires third-party applications.

This sounds simple, but it’s actually been difficult in the past. To do this on Windows 7, you’ll need to either hunt down a third-party application or dig through your Start menu and look for a manufacturer-provided utility that will be different on different PCs.

Windows 10

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Windows 10 includes a “Camera” app for this purpose. Tap the Windows key to open the Start menu, search for “Camera”, and launch it. You’ll also find it under the list of All Apps.

The camera app allows you to take photos and record videos. It also provides a timer feature and other options, although it’s still a fairly simple application.

Photos you take will be stored in the “Camera Roll” folder in your user account’s “Pictures” folder.

Windows 8 and 8.1

Windows 8 inludes a Camera app, too. Open the Start screen by tapping the Windows key and type “Camera” to search for it. Launch the Camera app and use it to record photos and take videos. It work similarly to Windows 10’s Camera app, and will save photos to the “Camera Roll” folder in your user account’s “Pictures” folder.

Windows 7

Windows 7 doesn’t provide a built-in way to do this. If you look through your Start menu, you might find some sort of webcam utility that came installed with your computer. That utility might provide a way to do this without installing any more software. Search for “webcam” or “camera” in your Start menu and you might find such a utility.

Mac OS X

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You can do this with the “Photo Booth” application on a Mac. To open it, press Command+Space to open Spotlight search, type “Photo Booth”, and press Enter. You can also open Launchpad and click the “Photo Booth” icon, or open the Finder, click “Applications”, and double-click the “Photo Booth” application.

Use the icons at the bottom-left corner of photo booth to choose either a grid of four photo taken successively, a single photo, or a video. You can then click the red button in the middle of the Photo Booth window to take photos or record videos. The “Effects” button will let you apply filters to the photos and videos.

Photos you take will be stored in your Photo Booth Library, and you can also right-click (or Command-click) them in the Photo Booth window to export them and save them elsewhere.

Chrome OS

On a Chromebook, you’ll find a “Camera” app installed by default. Open the application launcher and search for “Camera” to find it. If you don’t see it, you can install it from the Chrome Web Store.

Like on other operating systems, the Camera app allows you to take photos and apply  filters to them. However, it doesn’t provide a way to record videos. Open the Chrome Web Store and look for another app if you want to record videos.

Photos are stored in the Camera app itself. You can open its gallery — click the button at the bottom-right corner of the Camera app — and you’ll be able to save photos from the gallery to your Chromebook’s local storage or your Google Drive account.

Linux distributions also offer similar applications. For example, if you’re using the GNOME desktop, you may have the “Cheese” application installed. You can probably install this application from your Linux distribution’s package manager if you don’t. It provides an easy interface for taking photos and recording videos with your webcam.