iRotate Utility

I've got a dual monitor setup, running off an ATI 1650 video card. Not exactly hot stuff, but adequate for most of my (non-gaming) needs. But the ATI software is the PITS. It keeps losing track of which monitor is which, turning off the older SGI 1600SW that I have connected to the DVI output (through a converter to the older technology that SGI used), and generally getting totally horked if I change anything - either through the "Personalization" applet or through the Catalyst application. So I hate to touch it once I get it working. I like to use the SGI as my main monitor, and the newer, 21" Samsung as my secondary monitor, since it rotates easily. But I rarely rotate it because the software from ATI is such crud. But when I'm doing research and reading long PDF documents, I really prefer to have that monitor rotated so I can read in Portrait mode.

After the last round of frustration with the POS that is Catalyst, I happened to remember a post on the 64bit newsgroup about a rotation utility. A quick search through Windows Mail and I found the thread that Homer and Dominic had in December. And in it was a link to the iRotate utility, which is a 32-bit app, but works just fine in Vista 64-bit. What a great little utility. No muss, no fuss, it just works. Supports running in in the system tray, or directly from the command line, and lets you control the rotation of either or both monitors. And, most importantly, it just works. Doesn't mess up your other settings, doesn't throw the whole rest of your screen settings out, it just rotates the display you want rotated and nothing else. A real pleasure to add to my list of useful utilities.

The same folks make a more full featured, video card independent, general purpose monitor configuration utility called PowerStrip, which will also do the job. But it's got way more features than I want or need, so I'll stick with iRotate for now.

Charlie.