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I have two monitors and I want only one of them to be pitch black temporarily for a certain amount of time every now and then.

I don't want to turn the monitor off because then the computer stops recognizing it and changes all of my settings and my beautifully organized desktop shortcuts.

Same goes for disabling the monitor/changing to Single Screen instead of Extended Screen.

Is there a way to do that?

DavidPostill
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Itay Meir
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4 Answers4

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You can achieve this by using a 3rd party program called Multiscreen Blank.

It has a lot of features but the feature you are looking for is also present.

  • It can be used to Blank out unused monitors in a multi-monitor setup to reduce distraction.
Don't Root here plz...
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  • Thanks. I've been using Quick Blank Screen for a decade because I couldn't find a more-recent solution! One problem.. none of the download links work..? – apraetor Oct 27 '21 at 01:58
  • The download link in the answer for Multiscreen Blank worked for me. Not sure what Quick Blank Screen is. – chx Sep 09 '22 at 06:14
  • Thanks, looks like the website isn't compatible with referrer blocking. It's serving HTML in response to a GET for the .exe, rather than returning an HTTP error. – apraetor Feb 24 '23 at 14:58
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This is how I had to do get my Windows 10 machine to be "monitor off", but "running everything full speed in the background":

  1. Change the Power & Sleep Settings in windows to turn off the monitor after 1 minute, but never sleep

  2. Download nircmd and put in your PATH

  3. Run nircmd monitor off

If I just used nircmd without changing my sleep settings, windows would turn my monitor on after a couple minutes.

Erik Aronesty
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Honestly, the easiest option is to just download a picture of a completely black screen (or create your own in a program like Paint 3D which comes in Windows 10).

Open it, throw it onto your second monitor, if you're using the default Photos app (Windows), click the 3 dots in the upper right corner and then select the "slideshow" option. (Obviously you can create a script to do this for you).

Alternatively, there are youtube videos of 10, 24, 48 hours of black screen. Just put it in full screen. And this has the advantage of also acting as a timer.

Nav Bravic
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Hey I know it's been a while since this was asked, but here's what you need: an EDID emulator, easiest to do with hardware these days, but also check your graphics card--- AMD FirePro and Radeon Pro, among others, provide this feature in their display config.

Here is more about EDID spoofing or emulation: https://portal.7thsense.one/user-guides/MC264-display-configuration/index.html?nd_edid_emulation_(spoofing).html

What does it do? It makes Windows think your monitor is ALWAYS plugged in and turned on! You can then turn it off or even disconnect it (leaving the emulator plugged in, of course) and Windows won't change a bloody thing! Hope this helps someone out there still looking to solve this issue. -Sandesh

Sandesh
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