Switches your monitors when a Moonlight client connects, switches them back when it disconnects, and verifies that the switch actually happened instead of trusting Windows' return code.
Built for Sunshine hosts, especially ones streaming to a virtual display so the physical monitors can stay off.
- DisplaySwitcher.exe — the app. Double-click it for the configuration window, or let Sunshine run it headlessly.
- Setup.exe — wires the app into Sunshine's prep commands, without disturbing any prep commands you already have.
Windows' SetDisplayConfig returns ERROR_SUCCESS when it has accepted your request, not when the monitors have finished obeying it. On the machine this was written for, that gap is reproducible: the call succeeds, the tool reports victory, and the display is still sitting at the wrong resolution — or dark.
So after every switch this tool waits, re-reads the live topology through QueryDisplayConfig, and compares it against what was asked for: which displays are on, their resolutions, their positions, and which one is primary. If reality disagrees it retries, and as a last resort power-cycles the offending monitor over DDC/CI (VCP code 0xD6) to force an EDID re-handshake. Only a verified match exits with code 0.
The other half of the reliability story is identity. Monitors are keyed by their PnP device instance path (DISPLAY\MTT1337\1&33320f0&0&UID256), not by adapter LUID or GDI name like \\.\DISPLAY3. LUIDs are reassigned across reboots and driver reloads, and GDI numbering shuffles the moment a display is switched on or off — which is precisely when this tool runs.
- Download the ZIP from Releases and unzip it somewhere permanent, such as
C:\Tools\DisplaySwitcher. Sunshine will be pointed at that exact path, so don't unzip to a temp folder. - Run DisplaySwitcher.exe. Arrange the displays you want while streaming, save that as the Streaming profile, then arrange your normal desktop and save it as the Desktop profile.
- Run Setup.exe (it asks for administrator rights, because
sunshine.conflives under Program Files). Confirm the detected config file and press Wire into Sunshine, then let it restart Sunshine. - Connect from Moonlight. Your displays should switch, and switch back when you disconnect.
There is nothing to uninstall — delete the folder, and use Setup's Remove from Sunshine first to take the prep commands back out.
Display profiles is where the work happens. Pick which profile you are editing, then arrange displays on the canvas exactly like the Windows display settings page: drag them around, and their edges snap to their neighbours. Snapping isn't cosmetic — Windows rejects a layout with a gap between displays, so this keeps your arrangement applicable.
Select a display to get its controls: Use this display, Make this my main display, and resolution/refresh dropdowns. Displays you turn off drop into an unused tray below the canvas.
Two buttons worth knowing:
- Import current layout replaces the profile with whatever is on screen right now. This is the fastest way to build a profile: arrange your monitors in Windows, then import.
- Preview applies the profile for real, through the same verify-and-retry path Sunshine uses. It is the only way to be sure a profile works before you rely on it mid-stream.
Sunshine shows every global prep command configured, marking which one is ours.
Detected displays dumps the raw topology with a Copy for bug report button, which is what to paste into an issue.
Settings exposes the retry timings and DDC/CI toggle, and tails the log.
Configuring a virtual-display-only streaming profile means picking a resolution for a display that is currently dark. That works because the mode list comes from EnumDisplaySettingsExW, which happily enumerates modes for a display that is attached but inactive — on the reference machine, a switched-off virtual display still reported 35 modes topping out at 3840×2160 @ 244 Hz.
DisplaySwitcher.exe is a Windows-subsystem binary so Sunshine doesn't flash a console window twice per stream, but it attaches to your terminal when you run it with arguments.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
DisplaySwitcher.exe |
Opens the configuration window |
DisplaySwitcher.exe activate |
Applies the streaming profile |
DisplaySwitcher.exe restore |
Applies the desktop profile |
DisplaySwitcher.exe apply <name> |
Applies any saved profile |
DisplaySwitcher.exe capture <name> |
Saves the current layout as <name>.json |
DisplaySwitcher.exe status |
Prints the live topology and device paths |
DisplaySwitcher.exe install-hook |
Wires into Sunshine (needs admin) |
DisplaySwitcher.exe remove-hook |
Removes it from Sunshine (needs admin) |
Exit codes: 0 verified success, 1 verification failed, 2 a required display is missing, 3 bad arguments or missing profile, 4 unexpected error.
One quirk: because it is a GUI-subsystem binary, PowerShell returns your prompt immediately instead of waiting. Use Start-Process -Wait .\DisplaySwitcher.exe -ArgumentList status if you want to block. Sunshine waits on the process handle either way, so the hook is unaffected.
Everything lives beside the executable, so the whole thing stays portable:
DisplaySwitcher.exe
Setup.exe
settings.json verify delays, retry counts, DDC/CI toggle, log retention
normal.json the desktop profile
streaming.json the streaming profile
logs/displayswitcher.log
If that folder is not writable — you unzipped into Program Files, say — everything moves to %ProgramData%\DisplaySwitcher instead, and the log says which root won.
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
verifyDelaySeconds |
2 | How long to let the drivers settle before re-reading the topology |
maxRetries |
3 | Attempts before giving up |
retryDelaySeconds |
5 | Wait between attempts |
enableDdcCiEscalation |
true | Power-cycle a stubborn monitor over DDC/CI as a last resort |
ddcCiPowerCycleSeconds |
3 | How long to hold the monitor in standby |
ddcCiSettleSeconds |
5 | Wait after power-on before re-verifying |
logRetentionDays |
7 | Log lines older than this are pruned at startup |
Sunshine's global_prep_cmd is a JSON array of {do, undo, elevated} objects. Setup adds one entry:
{"do":"\"C:\\Tools\\DisplaySwitcher\\DisplaySwitcher.exe\" activate",
"undo":"\"C:\\Tools\\DisplaySwitcher\\DisplaySwitcher.exe\" restore",
"elevated":false}Plenty of Sunshine users chain several prep commands, so only entries that reference DisplaySwitcher.exe are ever touched. Everything else is preserved in its original order, the array is edited as parsed JSON rather than regenerated, a timestamped .bak is written first, and only the global_prep_cmd line of the file is rewritten.
Sunshine reads its config only at startup, so restart it after any change.
The switch reports failure but my screens look fine. Read logs/displayswitcher.log — it prints the requested state and the observed state side by side. A refresh-rate mismatch within 1 Hz is only a warning (59 Hz versus 59.94 Hz); anything else is a real disagreement.
A monitor stays black after switching back. Turn on DDC/CI escalation in Settings. Some monitors need a real firmware power cycle to re-negotiate their EDID, and the driver alone can't force one. Note that not every monitor implements VCP 0xD6.
"A display this profile needs is not connected right now" (exit code 2). A display the profile expects to be on is unplugged or powered off. A display the profile expects to be off being absent is fine — it is logged as a warning and dropped, which is what makes undocking a laptop or leaving a TV unplugged harmless.
Nothing happens when I stream. Check Setup shows the hook installed, that you restarted Sunshine afterwards, and that the folder hasn't moved since — the prep command holds an absolute path. logs/displayswitcher.log gets an entry for every run, including ones Sunshine triggers, so an empty log means Sunshine never called it.
My layout won't save. Windows requires the desktop to be one connected area with exactly one main display. The status bar names the specific problem; drag the stranded display until it snaps to a neighbour.
Needs the .NET 8 SDK.
dotnet build DisplaySwitcher.sln -c Release
./scripts/publish.ps1 -Version 1.0.0 # produces dist/DisplaySwitcher-v1.0.0-win-x64.zipThe solution is three projects: DisplaySwitcher.Core holds all the logic and native interop with no UI, and the two WPF executables sit on top of it.
MIT.