By default, Windows 10 will turn off the display after 10 minutes of your inactivity. In this article, we will see how to add a special context menu item to turn off the display directly on demand.
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If you have not changed the default power management settings in Windows 10, the display will be turned off after 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the operating system does not provide a native way to turn off display directly on demand by running a command or pressing some button. To bypass this limitation, we will use a third party tool, NirCmd by NirSoft, and integrate it with the Desktop context menu.
Before proceeding, ensure that your user account has administrative privileges. Now, follow the instructions below.
To add the Turn Off Display context menu in Windows 10, first download NirCmd.
If you are running a 32-bit Windows version, use this link:
Otherwise, download the 64-bit version of NirCmd.
Unpack the nircmd.exe file to any folder and unblock it.
Next, move the unblocked file to the C:\Windows folder. Click the Continue button to approve the operation if prompted. You'll see a confirmation dialog if you have UAC enabled.
Having "nircmd.exe" in the Windows directory will allow you to launch it without typing the full path to the file. You can launch it from the Run dialog, from Explorer's address bar, from a command prompt instance or from PowerShell. In our case, it will be launched directly from the Desktop context menu.
Now, import the following Registry tweak:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\TurnOffDisplayGroup] "Icon"="display.dll,-1" "MUIVerb"="Turn off display" "Position"="Bottom" "SubCommands"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\TurnOffDisplayGroup\shell\TurnOffDisplay] "Icon"="powercpl.dll,-513" "MUIVerb"="Turn off display" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\TurnOffDisplayGroup\shell\TurnOffDisplay\command] @="nircmd.exe cmdwait 1000 monitor async_off" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\TurnOffDisplayGroup\shell\TurnOffDisplayLockPC] "MUIVerb"="Lock computer and Turn off display" "Icon"="imageres.dll,-59" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\TurnOffDisplayGroup\shell\TurnOffDisplayLockPC\command] @="cmd /c \"nircmd.exe cmdwait 1000 monitor async_off & rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation\""
You can copy and paste the text above in a Notepad document and save it to a *.Reg file. Or you can download ready-to-use Registry files below (including the undo tweak).
Double-click the *.REG file you created or downloaded and confirm the import operation when prompted.
You get the following submenu in the Desktop context menu:
The second command will turn off your Display and lock the current user session. So, if you are leaving your PC for a long time, you might want to lock your PC and turn off the monitor instantly with one click.
This article is based on our previous tutorial How to lock Windows 10 and turn off the display with one click.
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Thanks, great tip!
Thank you.
Believe it or not, this is actually a very useful tip for me, it comes in handy when I just want to listen to music and have the laptop screen off. You’d figure that this is something MS could of thought of implementing in the OS.
I’ve always used nircmd turn off monitor in a shortcut,, but this is brilliant, well developed.
What’s the difference between async_off and off ? I never knew about the async_off option?
Thanks Winaero
Here you go: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd2.html#using:
There is also the async_on switch.
It works in Windows 7, is that ok?
it is OK.
This is the first place I found with any sort of way to post anything, even a question so I do not know if this is the right forum to ask this. I downloaded the Winaero Context Menu Tuner and added some items to my context menu. Whether I did it wrong or something else is going on I do not know. What I do know is I can now no longer open folders in Windows Explorer at all. Windows Explorer stops working and closes every time I try. I have all my files and shortcuts to programs in folders in Explorer so now I have access to none of them. Help! How so I undo the changes get functionality back to Explorer.
press ctrl+shift+esc to open the task manager
switch it to more details
from the menu, run a new app
browse for context menu tuner
and undo your changes.