kirupa
February 6th, 2007, 03:15 AM
There are many situations where I want to turn my monitor off without putting my system into standby. For example, at night, I keep my system running to record shows on my Media Center, so I would want my monitors to turn off immediately. Manually turning them on/off by pushing their buttons isn't a very efficient solution.
So, instead, I created an application that turns the monitor off at the push of a virtual button and turns them back on when the mouse moves. Here is how my application looks:
http://www.kirupa.com/net/images/monitorswitcher.png
You can install and run the application (XP/Vista) by clicking here: http://www.kirupafx.com/MonitorSwitcher/MonitorSwitcher.application (http://www.kirupafx.com/MonitorSwitcher/MonitorSwitcher.application)
Because accessing the monitor requires lower-level Win32 calls, I used some resources on http://www.pinvoke.net to create a SendMessage call to access the monitor's On/Off state. The code is:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Input;
namespace MonitorSwitcher
{
public partial class Window1
{
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, int lParam);
const int SC_MONITORPOWER = 0xF170;
const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
const int MONITOR_ON = -1;
const int MONITOR_OFF = 2;
const int MONITOR_STANBY = 1;
int onFlag = 0;
public Window1()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
}
private void MonitorOff(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(-1, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, MONITOR_OFF);
onFlag = 1;
}
private void MonitorOn(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (onFlag == 1)
{
SendMessage(-1, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, MONITOR_ON);
onFlag = 0;
}
}
}
}
I have attached the full source file for this below :)
Cheers!
Kirupa :bandit:
So, instead, I created an application that turns the monitor off at the push of a virtual button and turns them back on when the mouse moves. Here is how my application looks:
http://www.kirupa.com/net/images/monitorswitcher.png
You can install and run the application (XP/Vista) by clicking here: http://www.kirupafx.com/MonitorSwitcher/MonitorSwitcher.application (http://www.kirupafx.com/MonitorSwitcher/MonitorSwitcher.application)
Because accessing the monitor requires lower-level Win32 calls, I used some resources on http://www.pinvoke.net to create a SendMessage call to access the monitor's On/Off state. The code is:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Input;
namespace MonitorSwitcher
{
public partial class Window1
{
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, int lParam);
const int SC_MONITORPOWER = 0xF170;
const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
const int MONITOR_ON = -1;
const int MONITOR_OFF = 2;
const int MONITOR_STANBY = 1;
int onFlag = 0;
public Window1()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
}
private void MonitorOff(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(-1, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, MONITOR_OFF);
onFlag = 1;
}
private void MonitorOn(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (onFlag == 1)
{
SendMessage(-1, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, MONITOR_ON);
onFlag = 0;
}
}
}
}
I have attached the full source file for this below :)
Cheers!
Kirupa :bandit: