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Is there a command to power down the display in Windows XP? That is, a command that causes the video card to stop sending a signal to the monitor until input is received, much as power management does after a time.

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up vote 13 down vote accepted

Not as far as I know but you can use utilities like Monitor Off to power down the monitor.

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Excellent. This worked spectacularly. –  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Apr 5 '10 at 17:02
The technique behind this is explained at codeproject here: codeproject.com/KB/system/display_states.aspx –  Jeroen Wiert Pluimers Apr 13 '10 at 17:21
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There is also a utility called NirCmd, which supports not only this but more commands (like changing system volume, manipulating services etc - documented in the page linked). Usage is via the command line:

nircmd monitor off

And sometimes I've seen Windows "listening" to your last keystroke (the Return that confirms the command) after the command is "issued" and waking back up. A solution that has worked for me in most cases is:

nircmd cmdwait 1000 monitor off

Disclaimer: although this may be the third or fourth time I mention it here, I have no association to the NirCmd's team: just a happy user.

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Unfortunately it doesn't look like nircmd can be used to turn off a single monitor (in a multi monitor setup) –  Sridhar Ratnakumar May 4 at 2:17
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