How to Implement Screen Rotation (Windows CE 5.0)

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Windows CE supports screen rotation so that you can rotate the content of the screen in increments of 90 degrees. By using screen rotation functionality, you can develop applications designed for both portrait and landscape orientation.

Rotation changes the orientation of the screen, hence it is the responsibility of the OEM or IHV to test the target device in both portrait and landscape orientation to ensure a consistent user experience, particularly in conjunction with user applications, dialog resources and message boxes, Software Input Panels (SIPs), Input Methods (IMs), and ClearType fonts.

Screen rotation is currently supported only on target devices that use a single screen and it is not supported on multiple screen target devices. Currently the two applications that respond to screen rotation are the taskbar and the shell. When a screen rotation occurs, the cursor and mouse automatically realign themselves to the new screen orientation.

Note that screen rotation can be implemented only if the display driver supports screen rotation. If you want to use your own display driver and not the one available in the Platform Builder catalog, you must make sure that your display driver is enabled to implement screen rotation. For more details about changes to your display driver to enable screen rotation, see topic Screen Rotation.

This procedure takes you through the steps necessary to implement screen rotation on a Windows CE-based device.

Hardware and Software Assumptions

• You have set up a CEPC. For more information, see How to Set Up a CEPC.

To track your progress in the following table, select the check box next to each step.

	Step	Topic
	1. Create an OS design. Make the following choices in the New Platform Wizard: Name the OS design ScreenRotation. From the Available BSPs list, choose CEPC: x86. From the Available design templates list in the New Platform Wizard, choose the Mobile Handheld design template.	Creating an OS Design
	2. Make the registry changes.	Setting the Registry Key for Screen Rotation
	3. Create a project for the screen rotation application.	Creating a Project for the Screen Rotation Application
	4. Specify whether you are building a release or debug configuration of the OS design. Choose the release build.	Levels of Debugging Support
	5. Build the run-time image. The following list shows the choices to make: From the Build OS menu, ensure that the following are selected: Clean Before Building Copy Files to Release Directory after Build Make Run-Time Image After Build From the Build OS menu, choose Build and Sysgen.	Building a Run-Time Image
	6. Download the run-time image.	Downloading a Run-Time Image
	7. Run the application and verify the screen rotation. To execute the sample application on the CEPC, right-click the Start button and choose Run. Type ScreenRotationProj and choose OK. Verify that the screen has rotated by 90 degrees. Each time you run the ScreenRotationProj program, the screen will rotate by 90 degrees.	Not applicable.

See Also

How-to Topics | Screen Rotation | Rotating the Contents of the Screen | Display Driver Registry Settings | GWES OS Design Development

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