The Ultimate Guide to Swapping Screen Orientation by 90 Degrees

The Windows operating system allows you to rotate your entire screen by 90 degrees if you want to. But why would you want to? This underused feature can be a handy way to get more out of your screen real estate with certain programs that lend themselves to portrait orientation.

This is, however, useful only if you can actually physically turn your screen by 90 degrees. So if you have a laptop with a screen that rotates, or you have an external monitor on a mount that allows rotation, this method will work wonders for you. It’s particularly useful if you have multiple external monitors.

How to Rotate the Orientation of a Windows Display

Whether or not you have multiple monitors set up on Windows 10 , you can use this method:

1. To change the orientation of your external display, right-click anywhere on your desktop and clickDisplay Settings.
   
2. Look forDisplay Orientation and selectPortrait from the dropdown menu next to it.
   
3. Your monitor should now be displayed in portrait mode. ClickKeep changes to maintain the portrait mode.

When Does Orientation Rotation Come in Handy?

If you have two external displays, there may be certain programs you always keep open in one of those displays. Here are a couple of examples of when you might get more out of using portrait mode:

• When using Outlook, or any other email client, changing the orientation to portrait mode allows you to see far more items in your inbox than with the traditional landscape mode.
• If you’re designing a lengthy infographic using a program like Photoshop or Illustrator, turning your screen 90 degrees, allows you to see more of the entire design in one go. (You can keep reference material open on the other screen.)

Turning Your Monitor Has Its Uses

Not everyone will find a “sideways” monitor to be handy, but some people will. Now you know how, and why, you can turn your screen by 90 degrees.