How to rotate PC screen

For currently unknown reasons (maybe it was those jokers of your colleagues), did you find your computer desktop turned upside down and don’t know how to fix it? Do you want to create a multi-monitor workstation and want to configure one of the screens to be displayed vertically instead of horizontally? Nothing could be easier, you just need to know where to put your hands. If you have five minutes to spare, I have prepared for you a very simple guide on how to rotate your PC screen . All you have to do is read it and you will find out once and for all how to flip the screen of Windows PC and Mac in any direction.

How do you say? The thing interests you but not being very practical in terms of computer science and new technologies do you fear that the procedure to be put in place to be able to rotate the image on the screen may be too complicated for you? But no, you don’t have to worry at all! Contrary to appearances, doing this is actually very simple. You just need to know a few tricks and that’s it, trust me.

If you are really interested in finding out what steps you need to take to reach your goal, I suggest you sit comfortably in front of your multimedia station and concentrate on reading this tutorial. I am sure that in the end you will be able to clear your mind about what to do and that, if necessary, you will also be ready and willing to explain to your friends who want to receive a similar tip what to do. So, what are you still doing standing there? Below are all the indications of the case: happy reading!

Index

• How to rotate Windows PC screen
  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8 / 8.x
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP
• How to rotate Mac screen

How to rotate Windows PC screen

Whether you are wondering how to flip the screen on a computer or how to flip the screen on a laptop with a Windows operating system , below you can find all the relevant information. In fact, I am going to investigate the question a little for all versions of Microsoft’s OS available.

Windows 11

If you are wondering how to rotate the PC screen , clearly understood at the software level, there is a good chance that you want to do this from Windows 11.

In fact, Microsoft has changed the positioning of the various options with this version of the operating system and therefore I understand why you find yourself a bit “off guard”. In any case, don’t worry: it’s all very simple, since you just need to know where to “look”.

Well, all you have to do is go to Windows Settings (using the appropriate gear icon in the window linked to the Start button), make sure that the System option is selected on the left and click on the Screen pane . Here you will find, in the Scalability and layout section , the entry Screen orientation . Perfect, you just have to select the option you like from the context menu, choosing between Horizontal , Vertical , Horizontal (upside down) and Vertical (upside down) . You can then make your choice by clicking on the Keep changes buttono Reset .

If you are, however, wondering, how to rotate the PC screen from the keyboard , just press the combination of buttons Ctrl + Alt + Arrow (choosing the latter based on where you want to “direct” the screen). In short, nothing could be simpler. However, the latter method may not always work, as we have recently been trying to avoid it. In short, it is recommended to use the first method, but it was right to also make you aware of the existence of this possibility, since in some cases it could work.

Windows 10

Are you wondering how to rotate the screen on a Windows 10 PC ? I’ll explain immediately how it works.

You must know that the first step you need to take is to click with the right mouse button on any empty area of the desktop . Next, select the Screen Settings item from the menu that is shown to you.

At this point, move the mouse cursor to the Orientation item and then press on the drop-down menu below to choose the type of orientation you want to assign to your screen. Depending on what your needs are, you can turn your computer desktop by choosing between Horizontal , Vertical , Horizontal (upside down) or Vertical (upside down) .

Windows 8 / 8.x

If you are using a Windows 8.x- based computer and you are interested in understanding how to rotate your PC screen, the first thing you need to do is go to the desktop .

Then, click anywhere on the screen where there are no icons and then select Screen Resolution from the menu that appears.

In the window that appears on the screen, expand the Orientation drop-down menu , choose the degree of rotation you want to apply to the screen and then click the Apply button to save the changes. You can choose to flip the desktop in Landscape or Portrait or in Landscape (upside down) or Vertical (upside down) .

Are you using a tablet or hybrid device instead of a computer ? So to be able to rotate the screen you just need to turn the device in question horizontally and vertically. By doing this, the orientation of the desktop will be automatically adapted to the position of the device, similar to what happens when an iPad or an Android tablet is rotated.

Also keep in mind that, depending on what your preferences and needs are, you can lock or unlock this function quickly using the Win + O key combination on the keyboard. Alternatively, call up the Charms Bar of the operating system, placing the mouse pointer or finger in the top or bottom right corner of the screen, go to Settings and then select the item Brightness . Once this is done, you can enable or disable automatic screen rotation using the screen icon found in the appropriate menu.

Windows 7

If you want to find out how to rotate your PC screen and use Windows 7 , all you have to do is turn to the configuration panel of your video card .

To access it, go to the desktop , right-click in a place on the screen where there are no icons and select the Catalyst (TM) Control Center item (if your computer is equipped with an ATI video card) or the NVIDIA Control Panel item (if your computer is equipped with an NVIDIA GPU) from the menu that appears.

In the window that opens, locate the section dedicated to desktops and displays and access it to adjust the orientation . For example, in the ATI configuration panel there is the monitor icon with an arrow on it , and by clicking on this arrow you access a menu through which you can rotate the screen , identify the monitors connected to the computer or access their property.

To rotate the PC screen you have to select the Rotate item and choose one of the available options: horizontal , vertical , horizontal upside down or vertical upside down . Once you have made your choice, just click Apply to save the changes and OK to exit the graphics card configuration panel.

As an alternative to what has just been seen, you can rotate the PC screen on Windows 7 by clicking with the right mouse button anywhere on the desktop, selecting the Screen resolution item attached to the menu that is shown to you and, in the window that opens, set Portrait or Portrait (upside down) in the Orientation pop-up menu . Then click on Apply first and then OK to save the changes.

In case of second thoughts, all you have to do is reset the Horizontal value in the drop-down menu relating to the orientation of the display.

Windows Vista

Do you use Windows Vista ? Then you can rotate the PC screen by accessing the configuration menu of the video card in use on the computer, acting in the same way as seen in the chapter on Windows 7 . The procedure to follow is practically the same.

Alternatively, you can rotate your computer screen by operating from the control panel for tablet PCs . To do this, click on the Windows Vista Start button and select the Control Panel item from the menu that appears. In the window that opens, type the term tablet in the quick search bar located at the top right and click on the Tablet PC Settings item in the search results.

Once this is done, set the vertical orientation in the Orientation drop-down menu at the bottom of the window that opens and click first on Apply and then on OK to save the changes.

Should you change your mind, just set the Horizontal orientation again in the appropriate drop-down menu.

Windows XP

If you’re running Windows XP and want to understand what needs to be done to rotate your PC screen, a simple key combination should be enough to get the desired result. To try, go to the desktop, hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys on the computer keyboard and press the left directional arrow or the right directional arrow to rotate the screen (With Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow you can return to the standard horizontal orientation).

If that fails and the key combination doesn’t work, then the automatic desktop rotation is probably not enabled in your video card settings.

In this case, it is possible to deal with this by resorting to the use of the free software iRotate which, in fact, allows you to rotate the PC screen, not only on Windows XP but also on all other versions of the operating system.

To download the program on your computer, connect to the official iRotate portal and download immediately by clicking on the Download iRotate item in the left sidebar. When the download is complete, double-click on the file obtained to open it and complete the program installation process by always clicking on Next .

Once the installation is complete, you can rotate your PC screen simply by right-clicking on the iRotate icon located next to the Windows clock and choosing the type of orientation you want to give to the desktop from the menu that appears (for example, 90 degrees , 180 degrees and so on. Street).

To restore the standard desktop view, click on the Normal horizon item .

How to rotate Mac screen

If you are using a Mac , the procedure to follow is even simpler than the one seen for Windows .

All you have to do, if you have macOS 12 Monterey or higher, is to follow the path System Preferences> Screens> Display Settings , where you will find the Rotation option . For the rest, for more information you can refer to Apple’s official guidelines.

If, on the other hand, you have a version of macOS lower than macOS 12 Monterey, you must access the appropriate section for managing the monitor attached to the system preferences. To do this, you just need to access Launchpad , click on the System Preferences icon (the icon depicting the gear wheel) and press on the Monitor item attached to the window that appeared on the screen. While performing these steps, also hold down the cmd + alt keys on your computer keyboard.

Then choose the type of orientation you want to take to the desktop of your Mac, setting it from the drop down menu that are at the entry Rotation: . Depending on what your needs and preferences are, you can choose to rotate the Mac desktop by setting the Standard orientation or the rotations of 90 ° , 180 ° or 270 ° . To restore the normal desktop view select the Standard item from the drop-down menu. It takes a lot longer to explain all the steps than to put the procedure into practice, believe me.

Changes to the orientation of the Mac desktop can be made not only to the primary monitor but also to other displays that may be connected to the computer. To choose which screen connected to the Mac to intervene to rotate the screen, just select it from the Layout tab always attached to the Monitor section of System Preferences .