This article discusses various tools using which you can turn off the monitor/display with a desktop shortcut, hotkey, or command-line.
Turn off the monitor with a shortcut:
How to Turn off Monitor Using Desktop Shortcut
My new and fantastic C24F390 Samsung Curved 24″ monitor has the power button on the rear end, perhaps for aesthetic purposes. All these years, I have been using monitors that have controls on the front or underneath the bezel. Now, with the new C24F390, I find it a little bit inconvenient to reach out to the button on the backside every time I need to turn off/on the monitor.
Moreover, the only button the Samsung C24F390 monitor has is a JOG Button, which is a multi-directional button that helps navigate. The JOG button is on the rear left side of the product. The switch can be used to power on, off, move up, down, left or right, and select options on the on-screen display menu.
To turn off this monitor, it takes three button presses: Press the center of the JOG button → (when the on-screen menu appears) press the JOG button downward → then press the center.
So, I now desperately need a desktop shortcut or hotkey method than ever before to turn off the display, so that I no longer need to use the hardware buttons on the monitor. A mouse move or keyboard input should turn on the monitor.
Related Tip
Automatically turn off the monitor when locking the computer
Whenever we take a short break from our computer, for security reasons, we lock the workstation, mostly using the Winkey + L key combo.
However, many of us have the habit of keeping the monitor turned on even when going for a break. Till the time the display timeout event kicks in and turns off the display, it’s a wastage of electricity and increased wear & tear of the monitor. So, you can configure Windows to automatically turn off the monitor when you lock your computer.
Turn off monitor using NirCmd
NirCmd is a multi-purpose command-line automation tool that we have covered many times previously on this website.
To turn off the monitor(s) using NirCmd, use this command:
nircmd.exe monitor off
Create a desktop shortcut for the above command-line and assign a hotkey to the shortcut (e.g., Ctrl + Alt + M). You can also pick a neat looking icon by browsing the shell32.dll or imageres.dll files located in the Windows\System32 folder.
See also: NirCmd Command Reference
Turn off a specific monitor in a multi-monitor setup
To turn off a particular monitor in a multi-monitor setup, you may try Nirsoft’s ControlMyMonitor utility. ControlMyMonitor allows you to view and modify the settings of your monitor (Also known as ‘VCP Features’), like brightness, contrast, sharpness, RGB color balance, OSD Language, Input Port (VGA, DVI, HDMI ) and more. You can modify the monitor settings from the GUI and the command-line.
The following command-line turns off the specified monitor (e.g.. \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0)
ControlMyMonitor.exe /SetValue "\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0" D6 2
Editor’s note: After turning off a monitor using the above command-line, I was unable to turn it back on by setting the value to 1. The only way I could turn on the monitor was to use the monitor power switch.
Turn off monitors Using Wizmo
Wizmo from Gibson Research Corporation is another multi-purpose command-line tool similar to NirCmd.
To turn off the monitors using Wizmo, run this command:
wizmo.exe monoff
You can create a desktop shortcut to it and assign a hotkey. This tool also plays short music when turning off the display as well as when turning it on (by mouse or keyboard activity.)
Turn off monitor using PowerShell
If you prefer a native solution to turn off the display rather than a third-party program, you can use a PowerShell command in a batch file.
Open Notepad and copy the following line precisely into Notepad.
powershell (Add-Type '[DllImport(\"user32.dll\")]^public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int hMsg, int wParam, int lParam);' -Name a -Pas)::SendMessage(-1,0x0112,0xF170,2)
Save the file with a .bat extension.
Running the above batch file or command will turn off your monitors.
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About the author
Ramesh Srinivasan founded Winhelponline.com back in 2005. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for 10 consecutive years from 2003 to 2012.
Using the PowerShell script works, but it opens a Command Prompt window that needs to be manually closed. Is there anyway to change the batch file so that the window closes automatically? Thanks!!
I figured it out! If you replace SendMessage with PostMessage, the Command Prompt window will close itself automatically after running the script!!