Executive Summary
Rename IcePick.exe to IcePick.ex_. If you came here through a search engine and this was useful, kindly leave a comment.
Long Winded Explanation
We got a Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 for Christmas so we could beam images of Alex to friends and relatives in far flung places. It’s a pretty good web cam, but it has one very annoying design issue (which, bless their souls, Microsoft obviously touts as a ‘feature’). It has a “Windows Live™ Call Button. This button, which takes up most of the top of the web cam, launches Windows Live™ Messenger’s Live Call feature. If you don’t have Windows Live™ Messenger installed, it dutifully pops up a message box asking you if you want to install the software. Click on the image for a full sized version.
This message box pops up every single time you hit the button. There is no “don’t ask me again” check box, or option to turn the prompt off.
The problem is, the button takes up over 1/3 of the top of the webcam. If you try and adjust the camera to better frame what it sees, unless you are very careful, you are going to press the darn button. It’s downright maddening.
I searched the web, found one or two other complaints about this issue, but no solutions. I emailed Microsoft technical support about the issue, and I got a nice, polite, and completely wrong answer. After a bit of sleuthing on my own, the solution seems to be quite easy. It doesn’t even require messing with the registry as I originally thought it would.
To disable the Windows Live™ Call Button on the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000, simply rename IcePick.exe, found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\ (or wherever you installed the LifeCam drivers) to IcePick.ex_.
If you came here through a search engine and this was useful, kindly leave a comment.
I need to edit the registry to point to an application other than IcePick.exe, but I don’t seem to have the entry that everyone else is talking about.
My LifeCam is at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}004, but there is no Settings folder, or QuickStartPath entry. When I search the registry for IcePick.exe it finds two unrelated entries.
The program is named LcBuddy.exe on my system.
I couldn’t find anything meaningful in the registry using this name so I renamed the existing file, made a copy of LifeCam.exe, and named it LcBuddy.exe.
Now when I hit the button, it launches the LifeCam application. Slightly more useful than the previous results.
Thanks for the executive summary – good idea, since I just needed reminding of the program I knew I had to look for.
works like a charm, thanks! (confirmed on windows 7 btw)
Thanks for taking the time to publish your solution… that was driving me crazy too.
Simply renaming IcePick.exe worked great in Windows 7. That program was appropriately named, as the popup was about as pleasant as an icepick to the eyeball. Thanks!
Awesome find. Thank you for the post. That button was so annoying!
Great Find! Thank you!
I made a copy LiveCam.exe to IcePick.exe so now if I pressed the Call Button it will start LiveCam.
Thanks for the info. I had to go into the folder options and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types” before I could change .exe to .ex_
Hope this helps.
THANKS! That *feature* was a total pain!
I have had a few games that were almost ruined by the popup. Thank you so much for the personal effort you put into finding the solution and sharing it with the rest of us.
After all these years!!! Thank you so much. Every time you looked at the damn Camera, it wanted to in stall MS (More Shit).
Thank you, thank you thank you
thanks so much. seems to work. it was driving me mad!!
Thanks, it was spamming me and I didn’t even press it.
Thank you. I don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but my computer showed the pop-up whenever the camera was activated – which is even worse. If I had actually pressed the button, it would have been (well, to some extent at least) my fault.
Anyway, thanks to you I expect to get through another day without a nervous breakdown. :)
thanks for this fix, that message was getting annoying. i was getting it everytime the computer turned on!
Awesome! I was getting really pissed off with this useless, intrusive message. Thanks for the help!!!
Fantastic – thanks for an easy fix to a really annoying problem!
Thanks the darn button was making me crazy, I was about to throw the whole mess in the trash.
icePick deletd. thanks for help
Vielen Dank für diesen sehr hilfreichen Tip. Bei mir ging ständig ein Pop Up Fenster auf, dass mich zwingen wollte den Windows Live Messenger zu installieren. War schon drauf und dran meine Windows HD 5000 Webcam zu verkaufen. Endlich ist Ruhe ! Danke Danke Danke für das Abschalten der Windows Live Messenger Aufforderung diesen zu installieren.
Zu früh gefreut, die Meldung ist wieder da :-(
Very nice tip. Works as advertised. :)
Hint 1:
On 64bit Windows the file is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft LifeCam
Hint 2:
A version that would survive LiveCam updates would be to revoke read/write access from the file for everyone.