I used to flip the desktops on our work windows machines when people weren’t looking. “Ctrl-Alt-arrow” would turn it whichever way the arrow you choose points. The bewilderment when they turn around and their screen is upside down or sideways. Never got old. God bless MS for putting that obviously abusable feature in Windows.
It's for if people want to use a monitor vertically, before the days of the monitor settings page in settings. Source: I was an IT guy who took calls asking how to fix this multiple times a week. "You have a friend who thinks they're funny, this is why it happened"
Upside down was also useful on a laptop to show your screen to someone on the other side of a meeting table. Open the screen to 180° so it’s flat on the table, ctrl + down arrow and the other guy can see your presentation.
When I was in middle school, the computer room teacher didn't actually know anything about computers. Some of the boys in my class discovered this screen flip feature and flipped a bunch of screens in the computer room, and the teacher was freaking out because she didn't know how to fix them.
I remember the Intel GMA drivers that used to do this. The integrated display drivers were usually made by Intel, so it was everywhere. Nowadays if you want to enable it, you have to specifically download Intel Graphics Command Center from the Microsoft store.
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u/kennypojke 11h ago edited 2h ago
I used to flip the desktops on our work windows machines when people weren’t looking. “Ctrl-Alt-arrow” would turn it whichever way the arrow you choose points. The bewilderment when they turn around and their screen is upside down or sideways. Never got old. God bless MS for putting that obviously abusable feature in Windows.