Quickly turn off your Mac’s displays with Shift-Control-Eject

Comment from Craig
Time: October 22, 2009, 4:40 pm

Nice tip – but is there any way to, say, disable one monitor and keep another one functioning as the main display. i.e. a macbook pro with external display (i don’t want to sleep/wake my computer for this functionality) I just want mac osx to disable my laptop display when I have my external display plugged in. Windows vista even does this…

Comment from Anthony Cramp
Time: October 22, 2009, 6:06 pm

Great! If you have your machine setup to require a password after sleep or screen saver begins, then this key combo is a quick way to lock your machine. To date I’ve got the screen saver tied to a hot corner and have to fling the mouse to the lower right when I walk away from the computer. Keyboard combo is quicker and more repeatable for me.

Thanks.

Comment from Woodgie
Time: October 23, 2009, 6:10 am

How did I not know that?

Winner of best tip I’ve learned all year, I think!

Comment from Rob
Time: November 2, 2009, 9:15 pm

Craig, you can turn the brightness down on the mac. The external monitor will stay lit. I don’t know if there’s a shortcut way to do this.

Comment from verboze
Time: December 31, 2009, 5:39 pm

@Anthony Cramp: I don’t think this locks your screen. I’ve got my mac setup to require password after the screensaver, but when I tried this tip, I am able to get right back to the desktop without a password by pressing any key.

Comment from Anthony Cramp
Time: January 12, 2010, 10:03 pm

@verboze Do you require a password “immediately” after sleep or screen saver begins? System Preferences -> Security -> General.