How to Rotate An Image In Windows 10 With File Explorer

If you need to rotate an image, Windows 10 allows you to do it without using third party tools. The built-in functionality will allow you to do it quickly. Let's see how it can be done.

Many Windows 10 users are never aware that they can rotate images right in File Explorer. The default file manager app of Windows 10 has this functionality built-in. You do not need to open the image in any image viewer.

 

To rotate an image in Windows 10, select it in File Explorer. In the Ribbon, you will see a new section "Picture Tools" with the "Manage" tab active. Click Rotate left or Rotate right to rotate the selected image and you are done!

This is really useful and time saving.

It is worth mentioning that these Ribbon commands have hotkeys assigned. To rotate images with hotkeys, you need to press the Alt key on the keyboard and then press JP keys sequentially to activate the Manage tab. Press RL or RR to rotate the image.

As you can see, File Explorer allows you to rotate pictures clockwise or anti-clockwise using the Ribbon user interface.

If you prefer context menu commands instead of the Ribbon, there is good news for you. The appropriate commands are available in the context menu too.

Right click the desired image file and select one of the commands "Rotate left" or "Rotate right". They do exactly what you need.

Tip: You can process several images at once. File Explorer supports bulk rotate operation too. You can select several images and then use the desired context menu command or the Ribbon button. All selected images will be changed instantly.

The ability to rotate images is one of the lesser known but very useful features of File Explorer. It was available starting with Windows XP. In Windows 8 and Windows 10, the appropriate commands were added to the Ribbon to speed up your work and provide faster access to them. If you are going to use them very often, you can add these commands to the quick access toolbar.

That's it.