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.
Thanks for the information. This button is really annoying since I don’t use MS Messenger.
thank you! this was super annoying, wow.
This is awesome, and not nearly high enough in google’s rankings. I don’t see any ads to click on, though!
Good one! Thank you so much for takign the time do document this. What an annoying feature.
EH: Oops. Just added some ads. Thank you for pointing that out. As for the Google ranking, I wish I could do something about that. :-(
Even if you have the latest messnger installed the button does not invoke it in my case. I have vista. What you do get – eventualy after presing it is a message that says it only works with the latest version of live messenger (which I have) then it invites you to down load and install. If you agree, the download informs you that you have it already.
Sheeeesh. It is a pickle.
MS help was not.
Thanks for the very easy solution!
Work a treat. Thanks for the info :-)
thanks A LOT, man !
Great job
THANK YOU!!! I love you sooooo much!!!
Thanks for the fix, that has been annoying me for months!
Very useful – that button was most annoying!
Thank you! We use the webcam to video conference with relatives and my 1yr old loves to push that button – I was hoping there was a quick fix to disable it.
Thnaks for this – really helpfull
THANK YOU!!! I have a VX-6000 and it works for it, too. I love the camera other than that annoying “feature” – the image is extremely crisp and the wide angle is great, but I HATED to pop up MSN/Live Messenger every time I accidentally pressed that button, grrrrr!!! Now I’m 100% satisfied with it (at last there is something by MS I can say that about… ;-)
UPDATE: on the VX-6000 the tip goes sour when you access the “Properties” window to change exposure, brightness, etc. Then the driver reinstalls itself (asks for the CD, etc.) and restores the original IcePick.exe, undoing what you did. Since the driver is the same, this may happen with the VX-3000 as well.
But I’ve found a workaround for that, too: after renaming the original file, just create an EMPTY file named IcePick.exe. There are a number of ways to do this. For example, right-click on Windows Explorer’s right pane, create a new text file and DON’T edit it – the size MUST BE ZERO, otherwise Windows will try to execute it and God knows what will happen. Then rename it to IcePick.exe and confirm that you want to change the extension. That’s it, the button is dead.
you simply are the man. all of you who added tips are extrememly helpful.
Good idea. It works. (VX-300)
But I find other way.
In registry editor:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}003\Settings] (if there is no such a key, try find data “icepick.exe” in registry)
Value of key “QuickStartPath” you can change to anything you want, it can be even Skype path :)
And when you push this button on our camera, Skype wil start.
Also interesting is key “ButtonFunc”. Deafult value is C in hex. Do try and change it to 0, then push button on your camera, and don’t be so suprised :]
Tested on VX-3000 (not on VX-300)
Actually you can just delete the file altogether. Will not affect any other area of the camera operation.
Works great! Very cool hack. Good find on your part thanks.
I just downloaded all the particulars for this webcam. I’m using Vista. I have a friend on Windows Live and several on Skype. Is there a way to oscillate between using the webcam on the two? PS: I know very little about changing registers, etc.
Wow. Great Tip. I took it one step further and now I can use that silly button to pretty much launch anything I want. Just copy any executable file into the lifecam directory and rename it to icepick.exe and volia it will be launced when you click the button. You could probably get fancy here and find freeware bacth file or vb script compiler and then the sky is the limit.
have fun!
this works!!!!!!
It also works with the latest MS CAM model
Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000
Thanks! I knew there must be a way to disable this thing.
Brilliant – it works on the VX1000 as well
another example of “works as designed, but bloody annoying” features.
Thanks
Nice find!
You rock, my friend. Thumbs WAY DOWN on Microsoft for putting us all through this.
Many thanks!
Number one result on google for “how to disable lifecam software”. I was actually looking how to prevent the 2 page popup that occurs whenever I start my machine without the camera plugged in, but this has been useful too, as my large thuumbs bump that button all the time too. Thanks.
First site I found when searching for “lifecam vx-6000 disable button”
Really annoying that MS does not provide this option but thanks a ton for posting this quick and easy fix!.
I like the camera but have no use at all for a button on it.
I bet you get a lot of hits here :)
Thanks Nick – Microsoft drives me crazy!
Can you please help me with the pop ups associated with this webcam each time I turn on my oc – I would love to get rid of them. Thanks.
For that pop up, I am not sure but it might have added itself to you start up folder or reg entry.
If you do not know how to check the registry directly, click Start then Run (or WindowsKey-R) and type “msconfig” and it will show you all the start up entries regardless of where they are. You can disable anything having to do with the camera there, restart, and see if that helps. You can always re-enable stuff too if it causes issues you did not expect.
Hopefully this is what you were looking for. I no longer use the camera on my normal PC so I have not dealt much with this issue (i did see it once). Its hooked up to my home controller PC for security purposes so I really never log in to it anymore – everything is running as a service.
The trick was to install the lifecam vx-6000 on server 2003 :) It works now but was not easy since MS decided it should not install there.
Thanks! This worked like a charm.
Thanks!
Found though google by pasting the text of the popup message–you’re the only result. Thanks so much for the great tip!
Great suggestion man. Thank you for saving me from this annoying ‘feature’
Excellent!
Merci beaucoup !
Le bouton d’appel Windows Live de ma LifeCam est enfin désactivé !
Work great! Thanks.
Thanks!
Thanks for the tip – worked like a charm!
I appreciate you taking the time to figure it out and share what you found.
I used the tip with my VX 1000 webcam and it works! Great stuff!
Thank you. It is very nice to type a question in Google and get precise answer in 15 seconds.
thanks! ditto to the above post!
Thanks, this annoying button is so gay, when I play game I use the camera as a microphone and when trying to adjust it i end up getting this message and waiting 30-60 sec until the game will maximize again.
Thanks! To bad Microsoft couldn’t post a page like this. Would there be a way of disabling the button and using it to capture pictures/videos instead of launching Windows Live?
Thanks a lot. I was about to super glue it :-D
It’s a descent webcam but I don’t want to use Microsoft Live Messenger and I hate that annoying button. Thanks so much.
ONLY for those who know how to edit registry keys, Live Call button function ( LifeCam VX-1000 ) can be changed to access another application such as Yahoo Messenger. All you need to do is to change the Multi-String Value QuickStartPath from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}000\Settings] with C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe