Turn off the monitor with a shortcut

Desktop users will probably question why someone would need a shortcut to turn off the monitor when the button to switch it off is just a few inches away. It does not really make much sense to turn off the monitor with a shortcut if you can reach the power button of the monitor from your seat. However it does make sense in other situations.

Notebook users normally do not have a power button for the monitor and that’s probably the main application for the shortcut to turn off the monitor. It might also be useful for users with old huge CRT monitors that have the power switch on their back.

I have tried several programs that can be used to turn the monitor off on a system and only one was working perfectly on my Samsung 19″ LCD monitor. I tried NirCmd which worked fine during the first test but not in consecutive ones. The monitor turned off in the first test but all other tests had the result that the monitor turned automatically on again after pressing the shortcut.

It could be related to my system though. The application that did the trick for me is called Wizmo. It’s a small command line utility that provides a multitude of features, among them the option to turn off the monitor with a shortcut.

The command to turn off the monitor is wizmo.exe monoff. The easiest way to create the shortcut is to right-click wizmo.exe and to select Create Shortcut from the menu. Right-click the new shortcut afterwards and select Properties from that menu.

The Target parameter should contain the path to the executable on your system. Add -monoff after that path so that you get ..wizmo.exe -monoff

Now move the shortcut to your desktop or any other location that you want it to be. Double-click the shortcut to test it. The monitor should turn off. It takes a few seconds depending on the type of monitor that you have. My Samsung LCD monitor is seeking for connections on the other monitor ports for a while before the monitor is finally turned off.