Here is a little trick that you can do to change the screen orientation in Windows XP.
Hold down the Ctrl + Alt keys and press any of the arrow keys. The screen will re-orient to match the arrow key that you pressed as shown in the image below.
A few practical uses I can think of for using this trick is: change the orientation from landscape to portrait while using a Tablet PC or, if you want to see an image in a different orientation but can’t change the orientation in the application. Maybe you can think of other ways of using it.
You could also use this trick to just play a prank on your unsuspecting co-worker by changing the orientation on his/her computer. Of course the prank would work only if he is not already aware of this trick.
Update: I am told that this hotkey works equally well in Windows Vista. But I have not been able to confirm it since I don’t use Vista. If any of the readers can confirm it or otherwise in the commetns, it would be great.
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July 27th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Excellent tip !! I have a wide screen LCD monitor which I want to tilt 90 degrees and use it. Your post is very handy.
July 27th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
but it is not working on my computer
July 27th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
@Prashant: I guess it is because of differences in graphics board. This trick seems to work by default on an Intel graphics board. On other boards you may have to enable it or change it in the display settings.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
i have learnt a lot from reading your posts.more greese to ur elbow.