Rust Screen Disabler (Global Hotkeys)

A tiny cross-platform Rust app that turns your display off/on via global hotkeys.

This project is a practical playground where I learned how to:

• listen to global hotkeys across OSes
• call native OS APIs / system tools (WinAPI, xset, pmset)
• set up GitHub Actions workflows for Windows / Linux / macOS builds + artifacts

Created without vibecoding. Only hard teaching exipience and test on many platforms and crys

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Screenshots

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What it does

The app runs in the background (console app) and reacts to two hotkeys:

• OFF hotkey → tries to turn the display off / sleep the display
• ON hotkey → tries to wake the display

I intentionally use two hotkeys instead of “toggle”, because the real display state can desync after mouse/keyboard wake.

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Hotkeys

Windows

• OFF: Ctrl + Alt + F11
• ON: Ctrl + Alt + F12

Linux (X11)

• OFF: Ctrl + Alt + K
• ON: Ctrl + Alt + L

Notes:

• This implementation uses xset dpms force off/on (X11 DPMS).
• On Wayland global hotkeys and DPMS behavior are compositor-specific → this app currently targets X11.
• In VirtualBox/VMs, DPMS “power off” may be ignored (normal for VMs).

macOS

• OFF: Control + Option + F11
• ON: Control + Option + F12

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How it works (per OS)

Windows

Uses WinAPI SendMessageW(..., WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, state) to request monitor power state.

Linux (X11)

Calls:

• xset dpms force off
• xset dpms force on

macOS

Calls:

• pmset displaysleepnow (sleep display)
• caffeinate -u -t 1 (simulate user activity to wake display)

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Quick start

Build

cargo build --release