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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

Screenshots

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.

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

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)

Quick start

Build

cargo build --release