How to Flip Screen Upside Down

Out of the many pranks you can pull off on the computer, one of the most disturbing ones is to flip the screen upside down on somebody's computer. Then the only way they can work is by either flipping themselves upside down too (using an advanced yoga trick of Shirshasana) or flip computer screen upside down, physically! If you are a victim of such a prank or have accidentally flipped your computer screen upside down, then this article is for you! You don't need to flip out if your computer screen flips out, as the problem can be fixed very easily in a matter of seconds.

Every function of a computer is handled by a software program. Flipping the screen is a function that requires the use of software programs that directly handles the hardware level functions. These software programs are called drivers as you may already know. To flip your computer's screen upside down you require the use of this driver software and especially the graphic accelerator driver software. These drivers are usually pre-installed in your computer. One can access these driver level programs through the installed operating system settings. In this article, I assume that the operating system you are using is Windows XP or Windows Vista.

How to Flip Screen Upside Down Or Restore It Back?

There is a simple way to change the orientation of your display screen or flip computer screen upside down. If you are tired of these screen flipping antics, you can disable this flipping feature anytime. There is always a clever and simple, as opposed to, hard way of doing something. I will show both ways in which you could flip computer screen upside down or restore it back.

Short Cuts For Flipping Screen
It is a simple 'Three Key' keyboard shortcut, using which you can flip the screen in any direction you want. All you have to do is the following (Assuming you have Windows XP or Windows Vista installed):

• To Rotate Screen By 90^o to the Right, Hit Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key (→) in Succession and Hold
• To invert the screen, Hit Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key (↓) in Succession and Hold
• To Flip Screen 270^o, Hit Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key (←) in Succession and Hold
• To Restore Screen Back to Normal, Hit Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key (↑) in Succession and Hold

Try it out! It will work, provided this feature has been activated in the driver software.

Enabling Or Disabling Flipping Function
So, you saw the simplest way of restoring your screen, inverting it or rotating it in other directions. Now let us see the longer way of doing this. You should read this if you plan to disable this rotating screen feature.

Right click on the screen and select 'Graphic Properties'. The driver software window will open. Double click on the 'Display Settings' tab. There you will find check box options for flipping the screen by 90^o, 180^o, 270^o or 360^o. Then select apply to rotate screen. You can disable this feature by unchecking the 'Enable Rotation' checkbox or turn it back on by checking it.

In case, you have a 'Intel Graphics Media Accelerator' Driver, you can access the graphic display settings directly by using the key board shortcut - 'Ctrl + Alt + F12' and double clicking 'Display Settings'.

So, all it takes is hitting three keys on the keyboard (Ctrl + Alt + ↑ / ↓) to flip the computer screen upside down and restore it back to normal. If you are scared of your kids pulling off this prank too often, you now know how to disable this screen rotation facility from the driver settings. Hope this article helped you out and your computer screen is back to its normal orientation!