How do I set up a hotkey or shortcut to rotate my screen in Windows?

Question

I've recently acquired a set of monitor arms that allow for free rotation of my monitors. I'd like to be able to quickly switch from one orientation to another on the fly, without having to go through the trouble of accessing the screen rotation features of the operating system.

How do I set up a hotkey or shortcut to quickly switch the orientation of my monitor?

Answer 1

With my graphics card, this approach works:

1. Download Display.

2. Extract the Display.exe to a location of your choice (e.g., C:\Display.exe).

3. Use the [right-click] -> New -> Shortcut dialogue to create shortcuts for the desired orientations:

   C:\Display.exe /rotate:0
   C:\Display.exe /rotate:90
   C:\Display.exe /rotate:180
   C:\Display.exe /rotate:270
   

4. (optional) In each shortcut's properties, you can specify a Shortcut Key.

Answer 2

For me a simple CTRL+ALT+ARROW KEY worked just fine. Way simpler than the script, downloading display.exe and etc.

Answer 3

If some people are still using this thread or searching for this at google, I have the PERFECT SOLUTION.

1. Download Display

2. Extract to C:\Display\ (or a folder of your choice)

3. Open cmd, and write in the path to display.exe - C:\Display\display.exe\ -listdevices (this will show you all of your screens, letting you choose which one to rotate)

4. Choose which device (screen) you would like to rotate by their index number.

5. Create a .bat file using notepad. (Open notepad, write the lines shown below, save as "all files" and write ".bat" after name of your choice)

6. Write C:\display\display.exe -device (number of your device) -rotate 90 /toggle

7. If the "90 (degrees)" is the wrong screen rotation, just change it to "180" or "270".

8. You should be done now, and you may edit the shortcut or/and add it to your Taskbar by creating a new Toolbar.

->The nice thing about this way, is that you only need one shortcut and not multiple-<

Answer 4

Someone wrote a script on the AutoHotKey forums that does just this. But I haven't tried it myself.

He made it so that pressing the Windows key + a numpad key will rotate it:

• Win + 4 : Rotates screen to Portrait
• Win + 2 : Rotates screen to Landscape ( flipped )
• Win + 6 : Rotates screen to Portrait ( flipped )
• Win + 8 : Rotates screen to Landscape

Here's the script:

#SingleInstance Force
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

#Numpad8:: ; Landscape Mode - WinLogo + Number pad 8
IfWinExist, Screen Resolution
{
    WinActivate, Screen Resolution
}
else
{
    run "desk.cpl"
}   
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
Send, {Tab}
sleep 500

send, {Alt Down}
send, {o}
send, {Alt Up}

sleep 500
send, {Up} ; Send Up 4 times to make sure we are at the start of the dropdown
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
sleep 500
send, {Alt Down}
send, {a}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Display Settings
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out for display settings.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {k}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {F4}
send, {Alt Up}
return

#Numpad4:: ; Portrait Mode - WinLogo + Number pad 4
IfWinExist, Screen Resolution
{
    WinActivate, Screen Resolution
}
else
{
    run "desk.cpl"
}   
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
Send, {Tab}
sleep 500

send, {Alt Down}
send, {o}
send, {Alt Up}
;return
sleep 500
send, {Up} ; Send Up 4 times to make sure we are at the start of the dropdown
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
send, {Down}
sleep 500
send, {Alt Down}
send, {a}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Display Settings
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out for display settings.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {k}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {F4}
send, {Alt Up}
return



#Numpad6:: ; Portrait Mode (Flipped) - WinLogo + Number pad 6
IfWinExist, Screen Resolution
{
    WinActivate, Screen Resolution
}
else
{
    run "desk.cpl"
}   
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
Send, {Tab}
sleep 500

send, {Alt Down}
send, {o}
send, {Alt Up}

sleep 500
send, {Down} ; Send Up 4 times to make sure we are at the end of the dropdown
send, {Down}
send, {Down}
send, {Down}
sleep 500
send, {Alt Down}
send, {a}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Display Settings
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out for display settings.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {k}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {F4}
send, {Alt Up}
return

#Numpad2:: ; Landscape Mode (Flipped) - WinLogo + Number pad 2
IfWinExist, Screen Resolution
{
    WinActivate, Screen Resolution
}
else
{
    run "desk.cpl"
}   
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
Send, {Tab}
sleep 500

send, {Alt Down}
send, {o}
send, {Alt Up}

sleep 500
send, {Up} ; Send Up 4 times to make sure we are at the start of the dropdown
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
send, {Up}
send, {Down}
send, {Down}

sleep 500
send, {Alt Down}
send, {a}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Display Settings
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out for display settings.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {k}
send, {Alt Up}
WinWait, Screen Resolution
if ErrorLevel
{
   MsgBox, WinWait timed out.
   return
}
send, {Alt Down}
send, {F4}
send, {Alt Up}
return

Answer 5

I had the same problem as you but i found out how to fix this kink. First got to Control Panel. Go to Display. Click on Advanced Settings. You will see 6 tabs. Click on the tab that says

Intel(R) Graphics and Media Control Panel.

You will see Graphics Properties at the bottom of the tab page.
Then select Advanced Settings and click OK. There will be 5 tabs. Click on the last tab. (Options and Support) You can set the shortcuts from there. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

ClickMonitorDDC allows to setup such the shortcut, on per-monitor basis if necessary. By the way, this tool also enables an easy (using mouse scroll) adjustment of brightness and contrast.

Answer 7

There's a free app download you can get through the MS store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/screen-rotate/9nblggh3zd5h?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

It has a small memory footprint, so it's easy to leave running anytime you think you're going to be needing it. The hotkeys are customizable, or you can click on the icons. It iconifies to the taskbar notification area, meaning that the hotkeys still work.

It's nicely done; it does one simple job extremely well. Unlike Samsung's awful "Magic Rotate," it doesn't mess with your display resolution, so that I can have both a 4K display and easy-to-remember hotkeys.

Answer 8

So, I just read this whole thread http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/how-torotate-screen-in-windows-7-by-a-shortcut/55fca2a8-c34f-41f6-81ba-ce44e7127aeb

Apparently, Microsoft is refusing to put this with a keyboard shortcut into Windows itself, highly likely you could try it with the drivers/utilities that your Graphics Cards vendor supplies.

For my current AMD setup I simply opened the AMD Vision Engine Control Center and went to preferences --> Hotkeys

Then I chose Creating and Arranging Desktops in the Dropdown menu et voilá

That's about the most simple way I could find; while I still find it suboptimal. Maybe other people could provide some screenshots how it's with the nvidia drivers.