How to Rotate the Screen on a Dell Laptop With Ease

At the beginning of this journey, when the first personal computer was released in 1975, the mechanics of these gadgets looked no different to people than rocket science. Fast forward to a few decades later and things have changed considerably. More people have a mastery of these devices and it isn’t so difficult to conduct previously complex tasks on these devices. A classic example of this is the fact that it doesn’t take much effort to learn how to rotate the screen on a Dell laptop now.

On many levels, the monitor of your device can be considered the most important part of a computer, especially for us humans. This is because it essentially serves as the only portal through which we can interface with our computer and understand whatever is being communicated.

For this reason alone, it is simply essential that you position your computer screen display in a manner that optimizes comfort and ease of use for you at all times. In more than a few cases, this can mean rotating the screen of your computer.

But how do you manage this sort of feat conveniently if you’re not very familiar with your Dell laptop?

You don’t have to worry!

Below is everything that you need to know to access, activate and deactivate the Dell auto-rotation feature without stress!

Why Should You Know How to Rotate the Screen of Your Laptop?

There are several reasons why mastering the art of how to rotate the screen on a Dell laptop can be considered a germane skill.

For example, if you’re a programmer or designer by profession, it may be necessary for you to ditch the conventional landscape orientation of your Dell laptop in favor of the portrait view. This is because the latter orientation ensures that you have a more immersive and productive experience when you work.

The need to know how to rotate your screen goes beyond even this as well.

There are instances when you would need to get a better perspective of what is being displayed on your screen. This can readily give rise to the need to switch the orientation of your screen rather than twisting your neck.

In the same vein, proper orientation can also help give your presentation the right perspective.

A Complete Guide to How to Rotate the Screen on a Dell Laptop

There are a couple of essentials that you have to attend to first when it comes to ensuring that you rotate the screen of your Dell laptop the right way. At the top of this list is the fact that you have to make sure that you have a specific view orientation in mind.

When you have what you believe would make the ideal view orientation for you, you can then proceed with this process.

During the course of making this decision, it’s important to keep in mind that certain orientations may offer you better results when used to perform specific tasks as opposed to others. A classic example of this is the fact that when it comes to viewing high-quality photos fluidly, the best view orientation by far remains portrait mode.

However, when it comes to enjoying every facet of an image in its entirety, this may necessitate the need to turn the image left or right. Doing so will give you easier access to more unique viewing angles and help you truly savor what is being displayed on your screen.

With all of this in mind, we’ll be going over simple no-frills tactics you can employ to change the view orientation presented on your Dell laptop.

Method One – Using Shortcuts to Change the View of Any Dell Laptop

For those who want to change the view orientation of their Dell laptop with as little effort as possible, here are a few shortcut commands you can apply to get the job done quickly.

To Rotate the Screen of Your Dell Laptop to the Right

If you’d like to angle the viewing position of your laptop screen to the right, just press the following keys on your keyboard:

Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow Key

To Rotate the Screen of Your Dell Laptop to the Left

If you’d like to angle the viewing position of your laptop screen to the left, just press the following keys on your keyboard:

Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key

To Rotate the Screen of Your Dell Laptop Up

If you’d like to angle the viewing position of your laptop screen upwards, just press the following keys on your keyboard:

Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow Key

To Rotate the Screen of Your Dell Laptop Down

This is for restoring the screen of your Dell laptop to its original or default orientation. To do this, simply press the following keys on your keyboard:

Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow Key

The beauty of following this method of approach is that you can activate it from anywhere on your laptop, not just the home screen. As such, you get a significant level of ease and flexibility when it comes to how and when you can use this resource.

Further down this road, there is one essential thing you have to be sure to note: activating screen rotation on your laptop through this channel has a direct effect on how your trackpad (or external mouse) performs. In essence, it inverts the functionality of the tool.

So, if you’ll still be acting on your desire to change the view orientation of your Dell laptop, you should move forward firmly keeping the above factor in mind.

Method Two – Using the Display Settings Feature to Change the View Orientation of Your Dell Laptop

There is a longer but equally effective way of going about the process of changing the view orientation of your laptop as well. This typically involves accessing the “Display Settings” of your device.

The method of approach we’ll be outlining and highlighting now works best if your Dell laptop is running a Windows 7 or a Windows 10 operating system.

Here’s everything you need to know to get started here.

Changing Your View Orientation from the Settings Feature

First, you can either make your way to and click the Windows icon at the bottom left corner of your screen or you can hit the dedicated Windows key on your keyboard. Once the popup appears, enter the words “Display Settings” into the search bar, if you’re using a Windows 10 OS. For Windows 7 users, your search query should be “Screen Resolution”.

For Windows 10 users, the above action will take you to the Settings interface. For Windows 7 users, you’ll follow the Control Panel route.

In either event, you just need to locate and click on the “Orientation” option. Once you select this option, it’ll present you with a dropdown menu containing all the available view orientation options that you can access on your Dell laptop. Select the one you most prefer and you’re essentially done!

What to Keep in Mind

It bears mentioning that, in some cases, you may encounter a few hiccups when you utilize how to rotate the screen of a Dell laptop this way. By far the biggest of these is that you may not even find the “Orientation” option in your Display settings.

Should this happen to you, you needn’t panic just yet. Most likely, your graphics drivers are just out of date and you need to update them. Once you perform the update, things should go back to normal.

Another issue you might have when changing your view orientation like this might occur if you’re using a generic driver. Again, in this instance, you just need to find a Dell laptop-appropriate driver, install it and all will be well again in paradise.

Disabling the Automatic Screen Rotation Function on Your Dell Laptop

You may have noticed that most tablets and convertible personal computers come with the auto-rotation function automatically enabled. For some people, this mightn’t be an issue. For others, it can pose an outright inconvenience.

If you fall in the latter category, it’s perfectly understandable that you would need to know a sure way to get rid of this problem.

Thankfully, this is one feat that you can accomplish without breaking a sweat.

You just need to make your way to your device’s “Display Settings” through the process we highlighted earlier. Here, you then simply need to look for the “Rotation Lock” option. This is presented as a toggle. Ensure that the toggle is switched to the “Off” position. It’ll gray out once that’s done.

And with that, your screen will no longer rotate at odd times anymore!

Bottom Line

Learning how to rotate the screen on a Dell laptop device is a skill that will always come in handy. Whether for work or fun, knowing how to adjust the orientation of your screen at will is a resource that’s guaranteed to help you bring the best out of your laptop for sure!

Here are a few more helpful tips you can rely on to harness the full potential of your PC!