How do I rotate Windows 8 screen?

Most mobile devices like tablets or smartphones have an orientation sensor that signals the OS to rotate itself when the device is rotated.

But having installed Windows 8 on a desktop (or virtual machine), how do I rotate the screen? Obviously, this feature should be present in Windows 8 as it can be run on a tablet.

Vladimir Sinenko

Posted 2012-10-29T16:38:34.347

Reputation: 2 565

"You have to turn your monitor...90 degrees at first, then go from there..." YMMD :-D – Hubert Grzeskowiak – 2016-09-05T12:51:36.607

4You have to turn your monitor...90 degrees at first, then go from there... – TheXed – 2012-10-29T16:50:09.470

14Do you mean something like ctrl + alt + arrow keys or am I totally misunderstanding your question? – Peter – 2012-10-29T16:39:54.053

4@Peter That's an Intel feature; it has nothing to do with Windows. It will not work unless you're using Intel integrated video. – SLaks – 2012-10-29T16:40:38.417

Answers

Right-click the desktop and click Screen Resolution.
You will then see an Orientation dropdown:

enter image description here

SLaks

Posted 2012-10-29T16:38:34.347

Reputation: 7 596

@SLaks: nope, there is no such thing: http://imgur.com/MpAuf

– Vladimir Sinenko – 2012-10-29T16:49:26.817

2@VladimirSinenko Update your graphics drivers. – Elmo – 2012-10-29T16:50:48.877

2@VladimirSinenko - Then your video adapter, or the current driver maybe, doesn't support rotation. This is how it's done (and note that this is exactly like it was in 7 and Vista) – Shinrai – 2012-10-29T16:50:59.093

I see, thanks. I believe my question should be "how do I rotate the Windows desktop under virtual machine". – Vladimir Sinenko – 2012-10-29T16:53:31.180

1I thought all conforming video drivers had to offer that feature. – Joey – 2012-10-29T17:01:06.100

2@Joey: Nope, don't think so. Have come across a few Win7 systems at least (don't remember exactly which cards/chipsets though, but they had WHQL-approved drivers from Win Update) that were missing this option as well. – Karan – 2012-10-29T17:15:07.207

1I remember reading something like that on some MSDN blog, but I could be mistaken. But my Dell Latitude XT2 was also missing "landscape (flipped)" which, for a convertible Laptop/tablet is quite a stupid thing to leave out :-) – Joey – 2012-10-29T18:38:26.327

2@blachniet: That's a feature of Intel's video drivers, not Windows. – SLaks – 2013-10-13T00:16:45.727

To rotate the display, hold down ctrl+alt and either Up, Down, Left, or Right to orient the screen as each of the four orientations.

glenviewjeff

Posted 2012-10-29T16:38:34.347

Reputation: 1 472

3This only works if your video adapter's driver/utility provides it (most commonly this is provided by Intel's graphics drivers, for Intel's graphics adapters). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-05-18T14:56:36.567

"Orientation" setting is sometimes removed by computer manufacturer through modified drivers. If there is no such setting on your notebook, try installing driver from graphic chip manufacturer (Intel, nVidia or AMD) instead of from your notebook manufacturer.

Eg: HP 250 G2 notebook was missing this setting. After HP-supplied driver was uninstalled and replaced with authentic driver (obtained directly from Intel website), the "Orientation" setting appeared, as on SLak's screenshot.

Agent_L

Posted 2012-10-29T16:38:34.347

Reputation: 1 493