Want to turn OFF your monitor or screen quickly and easily without touching the monitor buttons? You can create a shortcut. Here’s how.
Generally, on Windows, to turn off your monitor or screen, you have to press the monitor button. If you are using a laptop, then you either need to close its lid or wait for it to automatically turn off the screen. However, there might be times when you need to turn off the monitor manually without actually touching the monitor, closing the laptop lid, or waiting for the display timeout. In those cases, you can create a simple and easy desktop shortcut with a PowerShell command. Once created, simply double-clicking the desktop shortcut turns off the screen.
In this quick and easy guide, I will show you the steps to create a desktop shortcut to turn off the monitor. This works in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Let’s get started.
Steps to Create Turn OFF Monitor Desktop Shortcut
First, go to your desktop by pressing the “Windows key + D” shortcut. On the desktop, right-click on an empty space and select the “New” and then “Shortcut” option.
In the shortcut window, copy and paste the following snippet and click “Next“. Basically, the command snippet tells Windows to turn off the display silently.
powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "(Add-Type '[DllImport(\"user32.dll\")]public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int hMsg, int wParam, int lParam);' -Name a -PassThru)::SendMessage(-1,0x0112,0xF170,2)"
Now, type a name of your choice for the shortcut in the blank field and click “Finish“. With that, you’ve created the desktop shortcut to turn off the screen. From now on, simply double-click the shortcut whenever you want to turn off the monitor. To turn on the monitor, simply press any key on your keyboard or move the mouse.
Important note: Some antivirus software may flag the above shortcut because it compiles a small C# snippet to send a system message to turn off the screen. However, it is completely safe.
That is all. It is that simple to create a desktop shortcut to quickly and easily turn off the monitor in Windows 11 and Windows 10. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
