A tablet and some hybrid laptop (ex: 2-in-1) devices are designed to rotate the built-in display automatically in a portrait or landscape orientation as you turn it so that what you see on the screen is always right side up.
If you like, you can turn on or off rotation lock in Windows 11 to allow (off) or prevent (on) the auto-rotation of your screen as needed.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off screen rotation lock in Windows 11.
Display orientation settings will be disabled and grayed out when Rotate lock is turned off.
- Option One: Turn On or Off Screen Rotation Lock using Keyboard Shortcut
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Screen Rotation Lock in Quick Settings
- Option Three: Turn On or Off Screen Rotation Lock in Settings
- Option Four: Turn On or Off Screen Rotation Lock using REG file
1 Press the Win + O keys to toggle Rotation Lock on or off (default).
1 Open Quick Settings (Win+A).
2 Click/tap on the Rotation lock button to toggle it on or off (default). (see screenshots below)
If the Rotate lock setting is grayed out, then often you can just rotate your display to be able to turn on or off.
If you have a convertible (aka: 2-in-1) PC with a 360-degree hinge, rotation lock will be grayed out when it is in normal laptop mode.
If you have a device (ex: Surface) with a removable keyboard, rotation lock will be grayed out while the screen is connected to the keyboard. This is because, in standard laptop mode, the screen will never automatically rotate.
1 Open Settings (Win+I).
2 Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on Display on the right side. (see screenshot below)
Open Display settings
3 Turn On or Off (default) Rotation lock for what you want under the Scale & layout section. (see screenshots below)
If the Rotate lock setting is grayed out, then often you can just rotate your display to be able to turn on or off.
If you have a convertible (aka: 2-in-1) PC with a 360-degree hinge, rotation lock will be grayed out when it is in normal laptop mode.
If you have a device (ex: Surface) with a removable keyboard, rotation lock will be grayed out while the screen is connected to the keyboard. This is because, in standard laptop mode, the screen will never automatically rotate.
You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AutoRotation]
"Enable"=dword:00000000This is the default setting.
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AutoRotation]
"Enable"=dword:000000014 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 Either sign out and sign in or restart the computer to apply.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
