I discovered this issue while doing my review of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro laptop and it drove me nuts. If you have a Lenovo laptop with an integrated camera, you might have noticed that there is no option to enable or disable the camera privacy mode in Lenovo Vantage. This feature allows you to block the camera physically by sliding a shutter over it. However, some users have reported that this option is missing from their Lenovo Vantage settings. Why is that? And how can you fix it?
The answer lies in Windows Hello, a biometric authentication system that allows you to sign in to your Windows 10 device using your face, fingerprint, or PIN. Windows Hello requires a compatible camera or fingerprint reader to work properly. If your laptop has an infrared (IR) camera or a fingerprint reader, Windows Hello will automatically enable them and disable the camera privacy mode option in Lenovo Vantage.
This is because Windows Hello needs access to your camera or fingerprint reader at all times to scan your face or finger and verify your identity. If you enable the camera privacy mode, Windows Hello will not be able to recognize you and will prompt you for a PIN instead. This defeats the purpose of having a biometric authentication system in the first place.
Therefore, if you want to use Windows Hello on your Lenovo laptop, you have to sacrifice the camera privacy mode feature. However, if you don’t want to use Windows Hello and prefer to use the camera privacy mode instead, there is a way to do that.
You can disable Windows Hello by following these steps:
- Go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options.
- Under Ways to sign in, select Facial recognition (Windows Hello) or Fingerprint recognition (Windows Hello), depending on which one you have enabled.
- Click on Remove under Manage how you sign in.
- Confirm by clicking on Remove again.
This will remove your face or fingerprint data from your device and disable Windows Hello for sign-in. You can also turn off other features related to Windows Hello such as Dynamic lock or Enhanced sign-in security.
Once you have disabled Windows Hello, you should be able to see the camera privacy mode option in Lenovo Vantage again. You can then enable it by following these steps:
- Open Lenovo Vantage and go to My Device Settings > Display & Camera.
- Under Camera settings, toggle on Camera Privacy Mode.
- A confirmation message will appear saying “Camera Privacy Mode has been turned on”.
- You can now slide the shutter over your camera whenever you want.
Note that some models of Lenovo laptops may not have a physical shutter for the camera privacy mode feature. In that case, enabling this option will only turn off the software access to the camera but not block it physically.
To summarize, if you want to use Windows Hello on your Lenovo laptop with an integrated camera, you cannot use the camera privacy mode feature as well. If you want to use the camera privacy mode feature instead of Windows Hello, you have to disable Windows Hello first and then enable it in Lenovo Vantage.
We hope this article has helped you understand why Lenovo camera privacy mode is missing due to windows hello and how to fix it according to your preferences.