A tray-first, professional display protection system for OLED and LCD setups that need per-monitor idle behavior, persistent settings, and practical control without interrupting active screens.
Display Control+ Runtime
Shipped UI Tray → dashboard
Monitor selection, idle timeout, detection mode (Input / Activity / Both), and overlay type — captured from the production dashboard, not a wireframe.
Each display can follow its own protection behavior instead of forcing a single global idle rule.
Users run tray.exe and control runtime behavior from the system tray without reopening full setup windows.
Configuration is saved in AppData, so settings survive restarts and maintain expected behavior over time.
Packaged with PyInstaller and distributed through GitHub Releases with update-aware workflow support.
Display Control+ is a native Windows tray utility. It doesn’t require Python, a browser tab, or a background service beyond its own tray process.
Packaged installer and portable release binaries target Windows 10 and Windows 11 desktop and laptop setups.
Portable release binaries should stay in the same folder after download — tray.exe, DisplayControl.exe, and overlay_bg.exe are companion executables, not standalone downloads.
Run tray.exe first. Right-click the tray icon and choose Open Dashboard to select displays, timeout, and mode.
Local protection runs fully offline once configured, but license activation, billing portal access, and account restore go through a hosted licensing service.
Display Control+ is designed around real workstation behavior where one monitor can stay active while another needs protection.
Apply protection selectively by monitor with configurable idle thresholds and independent overlay behavior.
Choose Input, Activity, or Both depending on whether movement, pixel change, or combined signals should control activation.
Use blank overlays, single image assets, slideshow rotation, or video playlists depending on your protection strategy.
Protection settings and selected media paths persist through reboots using AppData-backed configuration.
The intended release path starts with tray.exe. Users open the dashboard from the tray only when they want to change monitor selection, timeout behavior, or media mode.
Display Control+ moved off a legacy hour-pack model onto a straightforward trial-then-license structure.
New installs start with a full-featured 14-day trial — no credit card required to try per-monitor protection first.
Ongoing access billed annually through Stripe checkout once the trial ends, managed from a hosted customer billing portal.
A one-time purchase option for people who want to buy protection once instead of renewing every year.
Billing email and a recovery code are stored locally so you can restore an existing license on another machine without re-purchasing.
Legacy installs that purchased local credit packs under the previous model keep that entitlement; new installs use the trial-to-subscription-or-lifetime path. “Manage Billing” inside the dashboard opens the hosted portal for subscription changes.
Simple onboarding path designed for non-technical users and production workstations.
Download the latest build and keep release files together in the same folder when using portable assets.
Use the tray app as the primary entry point for daily runtime behavior and quick control actions.
Select displays, choose timeout and detection mode, then pick a protection overlay workflow.
Save settings and let protection continue via tray-managed background behavior across sessions.
Display Control+ is distributed as a professional Windows desktop product with installer and portable workflows, active release updates, and legal documentation for commercial usage.
This software follows Knight Logics licensing and terms documentation included in the repository and packaged release assets.
Display Control+ ships versioned releases through GitHub, including the switch to the current licensing model.
Fixes a wake-detection bug that could close a newly started overlay immediately, which made short-timeout profiles appear broken. Also restores reliable mixed-timeout behavior so a fast center-display profile can coexist with longer side-display profiles.
Replaced legacy hour-pack sales with the current free trial, annual subscription, and lifetime license model. Added hosted account restore, entitlement sync, billing portal support, and webhook-driven subscription state updates.
A run of hotfixes covering monitor-selection drift, overlay wake behavior, tray singleton/duplicate-icon prevention, recovery-code parsing, and clearer taskbar/tray icon rendering.
Worth knowing before you install, so per-monitor protection is the right fit for your setup.
Display Control+ is a Windows desktop utility. There is no macOS or Linux build.
New installs get a 14-day trial, then require an annual subscription or lifetime license to keep running — it is not open-ended freeware.
Image and video overlay selections persist as file paths. If a referenced file is moved or deleted, the setting stays but the media won’t load until the path is corrected.
Local protection itself runs offline, but activation, billing portal access, and account restore require a connection to the hosted licensing service.
Common questions before installing a multi-monitor protection utility.
New installs get a 14-day free trial. After that, continued use requires an annual subscription or a one-time lifetime license through Stripe checkout.
tray.exe. It is the recommended entry point for daily use. DisplayControl.exe opens the dashboard directly if you need it, and overlay_bg.exe is a background process the tray app manages for you.
Yes. Configuration is stored in %APPDATA%\KnightLogics\DisplayControlPlus\config.json, and license/account state is stored separately in license.json in the same folder.
Yes. Per-monitor profiles let one display use a fast timeout while another uses a longer one, with mixed-timeout reliability improved in v1.1.1.
Knight Logics builds practical, production-minded tools for real operational pain points.