TrayBlank 1.11
Published
TrayBlank 1.11 is here because someone had a really good idea. As usual, it wasn't me. Anyway, the suggestion I received was for TrayBlank to turn off selected monitors, leaving others on.
The monitor list menu
If you have more than one monitor TrayBlank will now display a new sub-menu where you can choose which monitors are turned off by the “Turn off monitor” menu item (and its hotkey). If you don't have more than one monitor then this version will just seem a bit bigger for no reason.
The menu will always start with an “All monitors” option, which makes the turn-off-monitor command behave the way it has always done in the past. Underneath it there should be a list of all the monitors TrayBlank finds attached to your system. With a bit of luck it will contain actual monitor model numbers, but otherwise it will call them “Monitor 1”, “Monitor 2”, etc.
But what does it do?
Selecting a monitor in this list means TrayBlank will attempt to switch it off when the turn-off-monitor command is used, by sending the monitor a virtual control panel (VCP) code. If the monitor doesn't support the power-off code, TrayBlank will fall back to using a full-screen black window over the area taken up by that monitor. In both cases the monitors are turned back on (or un-blanked) when the mouse cursor enters the area of one of the dark monitors.
This might sound a lot like an actual screensaver, but it isn't one. The real screensaver can still start normally, and when it ends the off (or blank) screens will still be off (or blank).
Does it really turn the monitor off though?
On the one monitor I have where the command works, yes - the monitor is turned off as though I had pressed the power button. Pressing the power button when it is turned off by TrayBlank turns it back on and the screen is revealed. Will it work for your monitor(s)? I don't know. The monitor I have that it does work on is about 10 years old, the one it doesn't work on is older, so that might have some bearing on it.
I'm much too lazy to reach over and press the power button
The new version of TrayBlank is available from the downloads page.