Sleep Now and lock to sleep

What it does

Sleep Now puts every monitor that isn't marked Always on to sleep straight away. Move the mouse or press a key to wake them.

Also sleep them when I lock the PC (Win+L) does the same thing whenever you lock the computer, and wakes them when you unlock it. It's the quickest way to "go to bed": press Win+L and walk away.

How to use it

• From the window: click Sleep Now. The message under the button tells you what happened to each monitor.
• From the tray: right-click the tray icon → Sleep Now.
• Wake: move the mouse or press a key (input in the first 3 seconds is ignored, so your click doesn't wake them straight back up). Or use Wake All.
• Lock to sleep: tick Also sleep them when I lock the PC (Win+L). It's on by default.

What each monitor does

• Monitors with DDC/CI get a real sleep command — the screen and backlight turn off.
• Monitors without DDC/CI are covered with a black screen, or have their signal turned off if you chose that — see Monitors that can't sleep directly.
• If no monitor is Always on, BranchOut Display simply uses Windows' own "turn off all displays", which every monitor understands.

Troubleshooting

• The screens go black a moment before the monitor switches off. That's intentional: the black screen appears instantly, then the monitor takes a second or two to act on the sleep command.
• A monitor didn't sleep. See A monitor won't go to sleep.

Related

• Night mode
• A monitor won't wake up