Shear-wall structures are quite common in seismic areas because of their successful seismic behavior during severe earthquakes. But shear walls are prone to brittle failure. This study proposes a new method of vertically installed dampers (VID) to reduce the vibration in shear-wall structures. The motion characteristic of a vertical damping system is that every mass has horizontal and rotational displacements simultaneously. The establishment of dynamic equations should take into account the equilibrium conditions of both horizontal and rotational vibrations. Dynamic equilibrium equations of VID systems are derived from a model of a structure with VID. An example shear-wall structure, with and without VID, is studied. There are some changes in the characteristics of the maximum horizontal displacement response. Without dampers, the relative displacements between different floors in the shear wall increase with height. With dampers, the relative displacements are more uniformly distributed, and lateral displacements at the top and at the bottom are closer. When the damping coefficient is 1 000 kN·s/m, the numerical results reveal that the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum rotational displacement of the top floor have reduced by 59.3 % and 54.8 % respectively.