Lets say I have a built in webcam on my laptop and the machine is stolen. If the thief gets on the internet, can I get the webcam to come on automatically and send me a picture

If you adjust, that the selected file transfer mode is started at startup and for the file transfer you have adjusted to send an email or upload via FTP a picture.

But the sending/tranfer interval must be short, that the sending starts soon.

Additional you can adjust the motion detector to start at program startup and send a picture.

But no function is testing if the person connects to the Internet and get active then.

So the person must connect to the Internet and then start WCCC.

What if the run key in the registry is modified to boot wccc? Would putting wccc in the startup group do the trick?

Interestingly enough, if you take a look at the wccc.dat file with a hex editor, you can see the password for your smtp access. Perhaps an algorith to obfusticate the data in the .dat file might be a good idea....

You can put WCCC into the autostart group, but this would only start WCCC at startup.

There is no functionality which tests if there is a Internet connection is made and then send something. So the program could only try to send in intervals and fail if there is no connection.

Yes, the password should be encripted.
My newer programs (CamUniversal, etc.) are doing this!