Monitor Standby
Overview:
I found it frustrating that Windows did not have an easy way to quickly switch
the monitor into standby mode. I remember years ago when using Afterdark on
the Apple Macintosh it was possible to activate the screensaver by moving the
mouse to a specified corner of the screen. I wanted something similar to this
that would either turn the monitor off or put it into standby mode.
The Solution:
I accomplished this by creating a very small VB executable along with a program
called WinKey. I used the WinKey
program to bind the windows key and "o" to the executable. Therefore
when the windows key and "o" were pressed simultaneously the executable
would be run and therefore turn off the monitor.
The Code:
The following code simply calls one of the Windows API functions to make the
monitor go either into Standby mode or Off mode. The code below turns the monitor
into Standby mode. To make the monitor turn off instead, use the following line
instead in the monitorStandby sub:
SendMessage(AnyForm.hwnd,
WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, 2&)
Note: The form form should be called frmStandby.
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VB Code for Monitor Standby |
Private
Declare Function
SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias
"SendMessageA" _
| |
(ByVal
hWnd As Long, ByVal
wMsg As Long, ByVal
wParam As Long, _
ByVal lParam As
Long) As Long |
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib
"kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds
As Long)
Private
Const WM_SYSCOMMAND
= &H112&
Private Const SC_MONITORPOWER = &HF170&
Private
lRet As Long
Public
Sub monitorStandby()
| |
lRet
= SendMessage(frmStandby.hWnd, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER,
1&) |
End
Sub
Private
Sub Form_Load()
| |
Call
Sleep(1000)
Call monitorStandby
End |
End
Sub |
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Download:
You can download the executable versions below:
Monitor Off
Monitor Standby
Note: You may need to download the visual
basic runtime files.
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