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ScreenMouseRotate - Screen and mouse rotation / invert screen and mouse

06/13/2009 - 20:36
Etc/GMT

Edit 12/24/2010: I have updated this files in this post (to version 1.1) with modifications made by Mars Tanumihardja. Mars has added the following:

  • Landscape flipped 180
  • Keyboard support so ctrl-alt-arrow will flip the mouse in addition to the orientation (if the graphics chipset supports it, i.e. intel)
  • Rotating keyboard arrows based on orientation
  • Command line arguments

Thanks, Mars!
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Once in a while I rotate the screen on my Sony Vaio P, as shown in this image from pocketables:

On Windows machines with Intel graphics you can press Control+Alt+Arrow Key to rotate in one of four orientations depending on which arrow key is pressed. However, the mouse doesn't rotate with the screen. This always bugs me a bit when the occasion arises to use the mouse. There is the Sakasa Mouse program to rotate the mouse, but it's not nicely integrated with the rotate function.

Consequently, I wrote my own little program to rotate the mouse while also rotating the screen. It should work on most computers, not just the Vaio P. I also tested it on my Lenovo X61T and it should not rotate mouse coordinates if the pen or touch screen is activated (at least for a Wacom, I think. Not sure about others since I don't have anything else to test it out on). Here is a zip file of the program:

Unzip and double-click to run. You need .NET installed to run it, which most people already have installed. It will run the app in the system tray and I think usage will be pretty obvious (right-click the icon in the system tray). If you like you could put a shortcut to the app in your startup folder if you want it to automatically start up.

If you're interested, source code is also available:

It is written in C# and uses Mouse Hook code by George Mamaladze:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/globalhook.aspx.

If you are interested, the older versions are here:

Works great on my Dell

Works great on my Dell Latitude D630, though the hot keys don't work, so I have to manually rotate via the application

While I like the concept of

While I like the concept of your program I regret to say that on my EeePC 1005P netbook, while the rotate works fine, the mouse control becomes extremely erratic and literally unusable. I have tried both portrait modes with the same result - even on returing to landscape mode the mouse ceases to be controllable. I have to use the Task Manager to get back to normal operation. Is there anything I should do to get things to work?

Cheers

John
2 December 2010

Sorry, I'm not sure what to

Sorry, I'm not sure what to try here :(

Nice tool! Exactly what I

Nice tool!

Exactly what I was looking for.
Unfortunately mouse does not rotate on my Vaio P (P21Z/Q Windows 7), screen and mouse pointer do rotate though.
Also, if I close app when screen is still rotated in Portrait mode and I start app again, rotation does not work anymore. Reboot needed to return to Landscape mode.

Weird, I'm not sure why it

Weird, I'm not sure why it wouldn't work, unless the mouse is somehow different. Sorry, not sure what to try next... I suppose the best option in that case is just to use the hotkeys to rotate the screen (without rotating the mouse).

Great!! Thanks for the

Great!! Thanks for the effort. It is simple and so beatiful programming. And it is FREE!!
One question, does it work on twin mons with extended mode? I am using two mons with landscape mode. If I could put two mons in portrait mode, then looks like I got two A4 size mons, excellent for office work.

Thanks and your work is much appreciated.

No, it only works with one

No, it only works with one monitor, although with some programming effort multiple monitors would be possible...

It's great However on my

It's great
However on my windows 7, once I close the app, the screen stays rotated but not the touchpad.

The arrow rotation would be cool with it.

And finally, the command line would be great to make a shortcut but also to buddle it with other commands. I have to lower my screen brightness since I hold my laptop closer in portarit format.

Thanks, that's a bug for

Thanks, that's a bug for leaving it rotated when closed... good suggestion about the command line!

Thank you very much. This is

Thank you very much.
This is wonderful... you should make it so it can flip the screen upside down too.

Done, thanks to Mars

Done, thanks to Mars Tanumihardja!

Just one more suggestion:

Just one more suggestion: Command Line parsing so that I can rotate with a simple shortcut!

Thank you so much, it worked

Thank you so much, it worked just fine on amy laptop with Nvidia GT240M graphics card.

Kenrick, thank you very much

Kenrick, thank you very much for sharing this clever little prgm! I installed it on my Vaio P and ePC. Loving it!

Thanks a lot, exactly what

Thanks a lot, exactly what was missing for my HP Mini 1000.
Tried a lot of other ones, none as satisfying as your one.
It requires, however, a heavy ".NET Framework 2.xx" download & install.
llw

What a great app. I just

What a great app. I just purchased a netbook for travel and was looking for a way to put a book reader program on it. Once I did, I realized that it worked much better when you changed the screen orientation, however, it was ridiculous trying to navigate with the mouse. I went to the internet to find a program and voila.......you had one. Works great. Highly recommend. Thanks for sharing.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. This is

THANK YOU SO MUCH. This is amazing. Exactly what I needed.

THANKS¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ Now

THANKS¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Now i have an IPAD for the bed :D

10/10

Nice tool, thank you very

Nice tool, thank you very much.

Two ideas:

Icons on the buttons and in the conteext menu.

Move the taskbar. My taskbar is at the right side. It whould be great if it moves to the bottom in portrait modes.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Hey, your little app is

Hey, your little app is amazing, it's simple but sooo valuable! I was looking for something like that for ages, thanks a lot for implementing it!
A tiny idea for a next release, if you desire... you could also rotate the cursor keys, which would make scrolling in ebooks a little easier. But that's just an idea, the tool is already perfect and as said, very valuable! thanks

Thanks, great idea about the

Thanks, great idea about the cursor keys! That should be doable with the keyboard hook...I will think about it :)

Is there something special I

Is there something special I need to do for Vista to get it to work? I've got a Gateway desktop running on win vista

Hmm, there shouldn't be

Hmm, there shouldn't be anything special, although why would you want to rotate the desktop screen? It might only work with Intel graphics cards, I'm not sure...