This article, "How Camera and Microphone Permissions Work on Windows and macOS," was originally published at https://www.blogthetech.com/camera-microphone-permissions-windows-macos/. If you are reading it anywhere else, it was copied without permission.
Camera and microphone access isn’t a single switch. It’s a stack of gates — OS, browser, and administrative policy — and a capture only works when every one is open. Here’s how each layer behaves on Windows and macOS, and which one to check first.
