DisplaySnooze

DisplaySnooze is a tiny open-source utility that turns your displays off while leaving the PC awake and your current session alone.

Why

I like to keep my PC on, and I do not usually log out because it is just me in my home. At night, I just wanted an easy way to turn my screens off so the room is not lit up while I am trying to sleep.

Windows and Linux can turn monitors off, but sometimes a short-lived wake event turns them right back on. DisplaySnooze handles that by turning the displays off immediately, then repeating the same monitor-off command for a short guard window.

What It Does

On Windows, DisplaySnooze is a real .exe. The PowerShell files in this repo are only build/signing helpers.

On Linux, DisplaySnooze is a small Bash command that tries the display-off command for your current desktop session.

The Windows version sends the standard Windows monitor power command:

WM_SYSCOMMAND / SC_MONITORPOWER / 2

By default, it:

• Turns the displays off immediately.
• Repeats the monitor-off command every 4 seconds.
• Stops after 10 minutes.
• Leaves the PC awake.
• Leaves your apps running.
• Lets you press Esc to stop the guard early.
• Does not lock, log out, shut down, sleep, hibernate, or change power settings.
• Does not install a service.
• Does not add itself to startup.
• Does not use the network.

Download

Grab the latest built files from the GitHub Releases page.

Lazy path:

• Windows: download DisplaySnooze.exe
• Windows DDC/CI backup: download DisplaySnoozeDdcci.exe
• Debian/Ubuntu: download the .deb
• Fedora/RPM distros: download the .rpm
• Other Linux distros: download the portable .tar.gz

Questions

The DisplaySnooze wiki has usage notes, downloads, Linux details, and troubleshooting for screens that wake back up.

Windows Usage

Double-click DisplaySnooze.exe, or run it from PowerShell:

.\DisplaySnooze.exe

Optional arguments:

.\DisplaySnooze.exe <guard-seconds> <interval-seconds>

Examples:

.\DisplaySnooze.exe 300
.\DisplaySnooze.exe 300 5

guard-seconds defaults to 600 and is clamped between 15 and 1800. interval-seconds defaults to 4 and is clamped between 1 and 60.

Press Esc while DisplaySnooze is guarding to cancel early. This is useful if you use a long guard window and want the screens to stay on again before the guard ends.

If a Windows or GPU driver update leaves one monitor backlit after the normal monitor-off command, try DisplaySnoozeDdcci.exe as a backup. It keeps the standard Windows behavior and also asks physical monitors to enter low-power mode through DDC/CI. DDC/CI support depends on the monitor, cable, and display driver, so this backup may behave differently across setups.

.\DisplaySnoozeDdcci.exe
.\DisplaySnoozeDdcci.exe 300 5

Linux Usage

Run the portable Linux command:

bash linux/displaysnooze

Optional arguments match the Windows EXE:

bash linux/displaysnooze <guard-seconds> <interval-seconds>

Examples:

bash linux/displaysnooze 300
bash linux/displaysnooze 300 5

When running from a terminal, press Esc while DisplaySnooze is guarding to cancel early. Ctrl+C also stops the script.

Supported Linux backends:

• X11: xset dpms force off
• Sway/wlroots: swaymsg 'output * power off', with a DPMS fallback
• Hyprland: hyprctl dispatch dpms off
• KDE Plasma Wayland: kscreen-doctor --dpms off

Linux support depends on the desktop/compositor, not just the distro. Arch, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, and most other distros can use the portable script as long as the matching backend tool is installed.

Windows Build

.\Build.ps1

The build script uses the .NET Framework C# compiler included with Windows and embeds assets/DisplaySnooze.ico. It builds both Windows executables:

• DisplaySnooze.exe
• DisplaySnoozeDdcci.exe

To regenerate the Windows icon:

.\tools\New-DisplaySnoozeIcon.ps1

Linux Package Build

chmod +x linux/displaysnooze packaging/linux/build-linux-packages.sh
packaging/linux/build-linux-packages.sh

The Linux package build writes:

• dist/linux/displaysnooze-<version>-linux-portable.tar.gz
• dist/linux/displaysnooze_<version>_all.deb
• dist/linux/displaysnooze-<version>-*.rpm

Arch users can use the PKGBUILD in packaging/arch/PKGBUILD.

Signing

.\Sign-DisplaySnooze.ps1

The signing script creates or reuses a local self-signed Authenticode certificate:

CN=Zac DisplaySnooze Local Code Signing

That signature proves the file has not changed since signing, but it will not show as a trusted publisher on other machines unless they explicitly trust the exported certificate or the executable is signed with a trusted public code-signing certificate.