Sometimese you need to know who was trying to login into your laptop running Windows.
One of the ways is take a picture using the webcam after entering the wrong user password.

Requirements

  • A somewhat recent version of Windows (Windows 7 or later)
  • A DirectShow-compatible video device (probably anything Windows recognizes as a camera, and more)
  • ffmpeg.exe (http://ffmpeg.org/)

snapshot_login_failure.bat

@echo off

:: Get date and time independent of regional settings. Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/203090/how-to-get-current-datetime-on-windows-command-line-in-a-suitable-format-for-us for /F "usebackq tokens=1,2 delims==" %%i in (`wmic os get LocalDateTime /VALUE 2^>NUL`) do if '.%%i.'=='.LocalDateTime.' set ldt=%%jset datetime=%ldt:~0,4%_%ldt:~4,2%_%ldt:~6,2%_%ldt:~8,2%_%ldt:~10,2%_%ldt:~12,2%

:: Capture snapshot through DirectShow using FFmpeg and save to disk. Change name of video adapter and save path.
ffmpeg.exe -f dshow -i video="USB 2.0 UVC HD Webcam" -vframes 1 E:\snapshot_%datetime%.jpg

snapshot_login_failure.xml (import this as a windows scheduler task)

</RegistrationInfo>
  <Triggers>
    <EventTrigger>
      <Enabled>true</Enabled>
      <Subscription>&lt;QueryList&gt;&lt;Query Id="0" Path="Security"&gt;&lt;Select Path="Security"&gt;*[System[Provider[@Name='Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing'] and EventID=4625]]&lt;/Select&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;&lt;/QueryList&gt;</Subscription>
    </EventTrigger>
  </Triggers>
  <Principals>
    <Principal id="Author">
      <UserId>S-1-5-19</UserId>
      <RunLevel>LeastPrivilege</RunLevel>
    </Principal>
  </Principals>
  <Settings>
    <MultipleInstancesPolicy>IgnoreNew</MultipleInstancesPolicy>
    <DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>false</DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>
    <StopIfGoingOnBatteries>true</StopIfGoingOnBatteries>
    <AllowHardTerminate>true</AllowHardTerminate>
    <StartWhenAvailable>false</StartWhenAvailable>
    <RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>false</RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>
    <IdleSettings>
      <StopOnIdleEnd>true</StopOnIdleEnd>
      <RestartOnIdle>false</RestartOnIdle>
    </IdleSettings>
    <AllowStartOnDemand>true</AllowStartOnDemand>
    <Enabled>true</Enabled>
    <Hidden>false</Hidden>
    <RunOnlyIfIdle>false</RunOnlyIfIdle>
    <DisallowStartOnRemoteAppSession>false</DisallowStartOnRemoteAppSession>
    <UseUnifiedSchedulingEngine>false</UseUnifiedSchedulingEngine>
    <WakeToRun>false</WakeToRun>
    <ExecutionTimeLimit>PT1H</ExecutionTimeLimit>
    <Priority>7</Priority>
  </Settings>
  <Actions Context="Author">
    <Exec>
      <Command>E:\snapshot_login_failure.bat</Command>
      <WorkingDirectory>E:\</WorkingDirectory>
    </Exec>
  </Actions>
</Task>


Notes:
The login failure event triggers after clicking OK on the "Wrong username or password ..." dialog and not immediately after entering invalid login inf

 

Troublesooting:

1. Find name of the camera:
ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy

2. Find Out What Windows Program Is Using Your Webcam:
To do this you'll need Process Explorer, You can download the installer here if you like.

With Process Explorer running, follow these steps:

   - Figure out what your camera's object name is by finding it in Device Manager.  For Windows 7: search "Device Manager" in the start menu.  For Windows 8.1: search the same thing in the Charms bar.
   - Once you locate it in the Device Manager, double-click and go to the "Details" tab.  Open the property drop-down and select "Physical device object name", then right-click to copy the name.
   - Return to the Process Explorer, or get it started if you haven't yet.  Then hit Ctrl+F and paste the camera's object name into the search field and click "Search."  You should see whatever processes are currently using your webcam.

Additionaly:

You can record voice trhoug the microphone few seconds:

ffmpeg.exe -f dshow -t 10 -i audio="Microphone (Lenovo USB2.0 Audio" E:\snapshotaudio_%datetime%.wav