If you’ve ever discovered your monitor is displaying an image that’s upside-down, or even sideways, it can be a little confusing. Apart from making it slightly harder to get your everyday work done, it’s a bit of a puzzle as to how the screen ever got like that. The likelihood is that a setting has been accidentally changed, or some mischievous colleague has played a prank on you, rather than your screen being on the blink. Many computers have a built-in ability to rotate the display, which can be useful in a variety of circumstances. Here’s how to stop everything being topsy-turvy.

screen display is the wrong way

The Knowhow

Computer Screen rotation

Use your computer’s hotkey combination to turn your screen the right way. The most common key combination is pressing Ctrl + Alt and one of the arrow keys at the same time.

The hotkeys will either:

  • Rotate the screen - You would need to rotate left (or right) twice to restore an upside down image
  • Have fixed positions - You will have four hot keys, one for each orientation. For example, the right hotkey is always sideways.

Monitor settings

Most monitors have an Auto button. Pressing this makes the monitor automatically detect the signal and calibrate it to work properly with your monitor.
monitor settings

Reset your monitor

Your monitor will have an option to restore to factory default settings. This can be access through the on-screen display menu. You can usually access this using the menu button on the monitor. Navigate the menu and choose the default settings or factory reset option.

A couple of button presses and everything should be back to normal once more, letting you get on with what you need to do and, perhaps, giving you a nice little trick for next April fool’s day.

Updated On:

Jul 05, 2012

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