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Tech Tip of The Week: Turn Off your Display Using a Windows Shortcut and More
in-house feature
Although it may seem unnecessary at first thought, there is some practicality in having a software shortcut to instantly turn off your monitor. It could prove very useful with notebook computers, if yours doesn't have a keyboard shortcut for shutting down the screen. It could also be convenient in the presence of multiple monitors, your power button might be broken, or you may indeed just be that lazy.
Whatever the case may be, setting up a Windows shortcut to turn off your display(s) couldn't be any easier with the help of a small utility called Wizmo.
But the power of Wizmo doesn't stop there. In our weekly tip we will illustrate a single one of this utility's potential uses. Using different commands Wizmo can also put your PC in standby, hibernation, lock your workstation, reboot, open/close your CD drive's tray, set your system's audio level, and even combine the different commands.
Read our Tech Tip of the Week.
Whatever the case may be, setting up a Windows shortcut to turn off your display(s) couldn't be any easier with the help of a small utility called Wizmo.
But the power of Wizmo doesn't stop there. In our weekly tip we will illustrate a single one of this utility's potential uses. Using different commands Wizmo can also put your PC in standby, hibernation, lock your workstation, reboot, open/close your CD drive's tray, set your system's audio level, and even combine the different commands.
Read our Tech Tip of the Week.
Related Stories
User Comments (20)
Post a comment| Kibaruk on November 5, 2009 5:53 AM | Amazing tip! I find windows 7 shutdown menu very uncomfortable and I use computer's main buttons to hibernate and shutdown. |
| Puiu on November 5, 2009 5:58 AM | I turn off my laptop's monitor to save battery life using Fn+F6 (i also turn of other stuff this way). I want to know if you can program it do these things automatically after x hours/minutes. I use an little program called Chrono shutdown to set my computer to automatically shutdown when i want to. |
| Ju1iet on November 5, 2009 6:21 AM | If it's only about turning LCDs off, then Taimur ASAD's
TurnOffLCDv101 will be your favourite. It shuts down LCD
screens and only weighs 69 KB. But I think it may need
additional software like .NET framework. I couldn't run it
after a fresh XP SP2 install. After I made the updates, it
ran like a charm. Here, give it a
try: http://www.redmondpie.com/downloadscenter /TurnOffLCDv101.zip |
| slh28 on November 5, 2009 6:36 AM | This sounds awesome, there'll be no need to reach for the top of my monitor or for the button on the DVD drive any more |
| fref on November 5, 2009 7:06 AM | Thanks for the tip! Will take a look at this as I've been looking for a utility that would allow me to set the volume on a computer. My mother-in-law likes to show kiddy music videos to my 2 year-old daughter, but being partially deaf, she tends to set the volume very high and I'm worried for my daughter... I guess I could use this to magically force the volume down via a remote script. ;-) |
| MBK on November 5, 2009 7:14 AM | This seems a little pointless to me, I've put shutdown into the default option of my start menu, don't use hibernate and log-off is a stupid default. Only thing I'd want is an automated shutdown at a certain time or after a certain ammount of time. Then again, I don't own a laptop, so it probably would be handy for powersaving where alternative options arn't available. |
| kimsland on November 5, 2009 7:19 AM | Only thing I'd want is an automated
shutdown at a certain time or after a certain ammount of
time. Here you go:
Marxi
o Timer
|
| ebolamonkey3 on November 5, 2009 7:45 AM | Awesome! Now I can finally turn off my laptop's screen w/o closing it! |
| guyver1 on November 5, 2009 8:07 AM | think i'll stick to using my finger to turn off my 2 monitors thanks. I'm not that fecking lazy! |
| swilllx2p on November 5, 2009 8:21 AM | I think this would be something you'd be like wow this is cool, and then 10 minutes later be bored with it and uninstall. For a laptop that doesn't have another way to do it without closing it it is pretty sweet...otherwise, I don't think its worth it. What i really need is something to quickly shut down things when my boss comes in the office...like this webpage + make it look like i'm doing something constructive lol. |
| njel on November 5, 2009 8:54 AM | Completely useless for me... |
| zaidpirwani on November 5, 2009 8:56 AM | I just got a new switch installed right under my desk to turn off my monitor and speaker and other peripherals etc but keep the system running, and it is much better then this, also there is one specially for speakers, so I can listen to tunes without turning the monitor on. |
| lynxon on November 5, 2009 12:05 PM | This sounds cool at first, but I mean really, when would you use any of those functions? |
| ellulbrian on November 5, 2009 1:29 PM | Well, at first I thought it was pretty much useless since
the montor's power botton is 6inches away from my hand when
I'm using the mouse (practically always  ) but actually it
will serve to preserve the stiffness of the botton
loltks anyways |
| flannelwarrior on November 5, 2009 2:02 PM | I love this program! Not only is it lightweight, it's well written and very customizable. Way to go! |
| Colonel Lance on November 5, 2009 2:45 PM | Sounds kinda nifty. But mostly it does indeed sounds very extremely lazy lol. |
| shalimar on November 5, 2009 3:38 PM | Wizmo FTW along with everything else Steve Gibson has
created for the world.. and mostly for FREE as well. |
| drasho on November 5, 2009 4:16 PM | This is a nice feature for laptops =) but when u use a desktop it not really worth it |
| elroacho72 on November 5, 2009 7:11 PM | This is a very cool program thanks for the find.It does a great job.I was actually looking for something like this. |
| wagan8r on November 6, 2009 1:32 PM | So... if your power button is broken and you turn off your monitor, how do you turn it back on!?!? |
