There are times when you might want to turn off your monitor while leaving your computer running. For example, you might want to conserve energy or reduce eye strain. Or simply to save a little power while still letting the system itself run. Luckily, it is easy to set your monitor to turn off in Windows, but keep your system running.
You can do this automatically after so much time by adjusting a few settings. Not only that, but you could also use the hotkey approach that allows you to manually trigger your monitor(s) to go off (and we are going to cover both of these).
Up first, is the ability to control it automatically based on a set amount of time. This means the time the computer spends without any user interaction (ie, you walk away from the computer). For this, we will focus on just Windows 10 and 11 as that should cover the majority of today’s users (and these instructions may live on a little after 11).
For Windows 10, follow these steps:
- Click the Start button and type “power options” in the search field.
- Click on “Power & Sleep” in the search results.
- In the Power & Sleep settings window, look for “On battery power, turn off after” and/or “When plugged in, turn off after”. If it’s a PC plugged into the wall, you likely won’t see the option for when on battery. If it’s a laptop, you should see both.
- You can choose from a variety of time intervals, like 5 minutes or never for each.
- Once you have chosen your preferred setting for one or each (depending on what’s available), close the window.
- Now, your monitor will turn off after the specified time interval, but your computer will continue to run. You can wake your monitor back up by moving your mouse or pressing any key on your keyboard.
For Windows 11, follow these steps:
- Click the Start button and type “power options” in the search field.
- Click on “Optimize your device based on power use and performance” in the search results.
- In the Power and Battery settings, scroll to the “Power” group of settings, and click on “Screen and Sleep” to reveal those settings.
- Look for “On battery power, turn off my screen after” and “When plugged in, turn off my screen after”. If it’s a PC plugged into the wall, you likely won’t see the option for when on battery. If it’s a laptop, you should see both.
- You can choose from a variety of time intervals, like 5 minutes or never for each.
- Once you have chosen your preferred setting for each, close the window.
- Now, your monitor will turn off after the specified time interval, but your computer will continue to run. You can wake your monitor back up by moving your mouse or pressing any key on your keyboard.
Then there is that option of turning off the screen on demand using a hot-key approach. This isn’t directly supported within Windows, so you do need third-party software. Thankfully, there are some free options out there and a common one is Dekisoft Monitor Off Utility.
With Dekisoft, the option is pretty simple and only requires a few settings on your part once you install it. Once you have chosen your hotkey, you can now trigger your monitors to turn off. A neat feature to have when you just want to hit your hotkey and walk away from the computer. Many of us use this here and at home thanks to how friendly it is.
Of course, there are other options out there. I just couldn’t speak for how friendly they are. However, the idea is simple and they “should” be as well.
Keep in mind that while turning off your monitor can save energy, it may not necessarily save you a significant amount of power. The amount of power that your computer uses while it is running is determined by a variety of factors, including the hardware and software you are using. If you want to conserve energy and reduce your carbon footprint, you may want to consider using energy-efficient hardware and software, as well as turning off your computer when it is not in use.
