Personalization Add "Turn off display" Context Menu in Windows 11

Donk · Dec 12, 2022

Try running the reg patch again.

I already did two times or so.

Although I don't understand the different Windows language thing... that could be the problem?

Sorry, what could be the problem? The language? With the reg entry?

Ghot · Dec 12, 2022

@Brink

There's something wrong with those reg patches.

The "remove" reg patch works fine.
The "add" reg patch sort of works.

When I click "turn off display", a blank power shell window opens and the display goes off. But in about 3-4 seconds it comes back on.

/edit

I checked and the new reg patches didn't affect the nircmd.exe in System32, so... I just ran the new "remove" reg patch, then ran the Windows 10 tutorial reg patch again... and the "Turn off display" works again.

Donk · Dec 12, 2022

You might have to temporarily set Windows to English...

Would that be that easy to do?

What might be in the reg entry that might work dependently from languages? Actually I - without having any idea of anything - would think all program code is english in Win, could not imagine that would cause any problems because of the language.

I honestly don't know what happens to the registry when the Windows language changes.

It would have been good if I had known earlier. But if the computer will start again next time....

Ghot · Dec 12, 2022

Brink said:
If you moved the mouse after clicking on it, it may cause that to happen.

Yep. I must have bumped the computer desk.
Just rechecked it... and the "new" method works.

I'm still gonna use the "old" method, cause I don't like seeing that blank power shell window.

I'm gonna put both methods in the Leader Board.

Brink · Dec 12, 2022

Ghot said:
@Brink

There's something wrong with those reg patches.

The "remove" reg patch works fine.
The "add" reg patch sort of works.

When I click "turn off display", a blank power shell window opens and the display goes off. But in about 3-4 seconds it comes back on.

/edit

I checked and the new reg patches didn't affect the nircmd.exe in System32, so... I just ran the new "remove" reg patch, then ran the Windows 10 tutorial reg patch again... and the "Turn off display" works again.

I've update the REG again to wrap the new command with cmd. It seems to have solved the issue with the display turning back on shortly afterwards.

Please try the new REG to see if you see the same.

Ghot · Dec 12, 2022

Brink said:
I've update the REG again to wrap the new command with cmd. It seems to have solved the issue with the display turning back on shortly afterwards.

Please try the new REG to see if you see the same.

See above. It works. I just retested it.
I'm still using the old way though.

Ghot · Dec 12, 2022

Donk said:
Would that be that easy to do?

What might be in the reg entry that might work dependently from languages? Actually I - without having any idea of anything - would think all program code is english in Win, could not imagine that would cause any problems because of the language.

It would have been good if I had known earlier. But if the computer will start again next time....

I don't know if it's easy or not.
I don't know if it's necessary or not. I'm just guessing here.

I would think that no matter what language Windows is in... the Registry stays in English... but I don't know for sure.

It looks like your Windows is in... German?
Open the registry and see if the registry is in German or English.

Right click START and choose: Run
Type regedit.exe in the Run box and click OK.

It must not make a difference. If it did, someone would have noticed it by now.

Donk · Dec 12, 2022

Yes, I understand.

German, yes.

The music goes on playing on an external amp via HDMI when "Option One" works?

hdmi · Dec 14, 2022

Ghot said:
, cause I don't like seeing that blank power shell window.

Here's an easy fix. Paste the code below in notepad and save it as a new textfile. Rename the .txt extension of the file to .cs (e.g., ScreenOff.cs).

Code:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class Program
{
   [DllImport("user32.dll")]
   private static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int hMsg, int wParam, int lParam);
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
      System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
      SendMessage(0xFFFF,0x112,0xF170,2);
   }
}

In the same folder, create a new batchfile (e.g., build_ScreenOff.bat)

Code:

@ECHO OFF
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full" /v InstallPath`) DO SET InstallPath=%%F
SET InstallPath=%InstallPath:*REG_SZ =%
FOR /F "tokens=* Eol= " %%F IN ("%InstallPath%") DO SET "InstallPath=%%F"
IF EXIST "%InstallPath%csc.exe" ("%InstallPath%csc.exe" /out:"%~dp0\ScreenOff.exe" /target:winexe "%~dp0\ScreenOff.cs") ELSE (ECHO ERROR - Missing csc.exe)
PAUSE

It will use the C# compiler (that is a part of the .NET Framework, which comes installed on Windows 11 by default) to create an .exe file (e.g., ScreenOff.exe). The rest should be trivial.

Note: System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000); causes an initial delay of 2 seconds, this is so that any mouse movement that may result from letting go of the mouse within 2 seconds after you clicked on "Turn off display" doesn't cause the display to wake right up again.

13rennon · Apr 18, 2024

Sorry to necro an old post, but I just applied this tweak and it works fine, however it seems to leave the command prompt window open after running, and I need to close it every time after waking my displays. It's a minor annoyance but is there any way to force close the window after, like adding some kind of exit command?

Donk · Apr 18, 2024

Is there perhaps a way to use the tweak without switching off the music on the external amplifier?

hdmi · Apr 18, 2024

13rennon said:
Sorry to necro an old post, but I just applied this tweak and it works fine, however it seems to leave the command prompt window open after running, and I need to close it every time after waking my displays. It's a minor annoyance but is there any way to force close the window after, like adding some kind of exit command?

Yeah. That's why I offered a solution in the post directly above yours.

gaiba · Saturday at 11:14 PM

Is there a way to implement the "lock computer and turn off display" function as an executable so that I can use it via a shortcut and apply it by a keyboard combination? Similar to how Win + L locks the computer, I'd like a way to simply do something like that to both lock the computer and turn off the display, if possible.

hdmi · Sunday at 12:05 AM

gaiba said:
Is there a way to implement the "lock computer and turn off display" function as an executable so that I can use it via a shortcut and apply it by a keyboard combination? Similar to how Win + L locks the computer, I'd like a way to simply do something like that to both lock the computer and turn off the display, if possible.

Lock_computer_and_ScreenOff.cs

Code:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class Program
{
   [DllImport("user32.dll")]
   private static extern bool LockWorkStation();

   [DllImport("user32.dll")]
   private static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int hMsg, int wParam, int lParam);

   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
      LockWorkStation();
      System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
      SendMessage(0xFFFF,0x112,0xF170,2);
   }
}

Build Lock_computer_and_ScreenOff.bat

Batch:

@ECHO OFF
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full" /v InstallPath`) DO SET "InstallPath=%%F"
SET InstallPath=%InstallPath:*REG_SZ =%
FOR /F "tokens=* Eol= " %%F IN ("%InstallPath%") DO SET "InstallPath=%%F"
IF EXIST "%InstallPath%csc.exe" ("%InstallPath%csc.exe" /out:"%~dp0\Lock_computer_and_ScreenOff.exe" /target:winexe "%~dp0\Lock_computer_and_ScreenOff.cs") ELSE (ECHO ERROR - Missing csc.exe)
PAUSE

To unlock the computer, you do not need to wake the screen up again first. Instead, you can just immediately start typing in your PIN code, as the screen will automatically turn back on after you start typing.