Though many people don’t see the Nvidia control panel as a big deal, the truth is that it does play a vital role, especially for those users who work on graphic intensive applications or any other software to renders videos. Also, gamers need it, cause it helps them to adjust their Graphics Quality settings. Generally, the Nvidia control panel serves as a hardware control application, that enables users to have control over such things as their clock speeds, on-board cooling fans, ambient temperature readings, etc. Although most people use GeForce Experience interface to customize GPU settings, there are many other areas where you will need the help of the Nvidia control panel to enable the user toggle with the settings, areas such as the performance settings, 3D settings, PhysX settings and many more.
How to Download Nvidia Control Panel
Like was stated earlier, the NVIDIA Control Panel enables the user to have control over the video card’s settings and adjust the settings to suit him or her, ranging from the resolution to the 3D settings. The NVIDIA Control Panel usually installs automatically when the NVIDIA DCH display driver is been installed, the manual installation might not be needed, but if the need arises that you must manually install it, then here is the process you will have to follow to achieve that.
1. Launch your Web browser
2. Go to the official NVIDIA drivers page
3. Fill the following forms the “Product Type,” “Product Series,” “Product,” “Operating System” and “Language” boxes with the accurate information needed about your video card.
4. Click on the green “Search” icon to get the latest driver.
5. Click on the green “Download” button and then click on “Agree and Download.”
6. Endeavor to save the installer on your computer.
7. Do a double-click the installer on that installer to kick off the installing of the latest drivers, together with the NVIDIA Control Panel.
8. Next is to click OK in order to allow the installer to retrieve the needed files in the default folder. When you do that, the installation starts automatically
9. Next is to follow the instructions on the screen to install the drivers and NVIDIA Control Panel.
10. Finally, restart your computer and you will find the NVIDIA Control Panel at the bottom right corner of the Windows 7 notification bar, on your computer screen.
How To Fix it When It’s Not Working or Opening
When the Nvidia Control Panel stops working or no more opening on your computer, here are a few things you can do to fix this problem:
Method 1: Restart the NVIDIA Control Panel Process
To restart the Nvidia Control Panel, follow the process below:
Step 1: Launch the Task Manager by pressing altogether Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Step 2: Now that you have opened the Task Manager, click on the NVIDIA Control Panel to expand the menu and then right-click on the NVIDIA Control Panel and then click on End task
Step 3: Relaunch the control panel again, and this time it should work
Method 2: Restart the NVIDIA Display Driver Service
You have to make sure the NVIDIA Display Driver Service is working perfectly well because it is responsible for launching the control panel. And when it’s down, it should be fixed immediately, and one of the ways to fix it is by restarting it. Below is how to restart the NVIDIA Display Driver Service.
First to open the run prompt on your computer, press Windows + R keys, then Type services.msc and click enter, this will open the Windows Services Manager.
Search for NVIDIA Display Driver Service on the Services window and double-click on it to reveal its Properties box.
Start the service if it has been stopped. If it has not stopped, stop it and then start it again, and then make sure the start-up type is set on Automatic
Repeat this process for all NVIDIA LocalSystem Container service.
Method 3: Update the NVIDIA display driver
The issue might probably be because the driver is outdated or corrupted, and if that is the case, it will definitely result in the control panel not working or not opening. It can easily be fixed by simply updating the NVIDIA display driver.
You can choose to either update the driver manually or automatically. To update it manually, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Go to the NVIDIA GeForce Driver Download page to download the latest version of the driver.
Step 2: Once the download is complete, run the installer to begin the update
Note: We always advise users to do a backup before updating any driver, that way they can be able to do a system restore should anything go wrong while updating.
However, if you prefer to do the update automatically, we recommend using GeForce Experience. The Geforce Experience is an NVIDIA program that takes care of Nvidia drivers and game settings. This is how it works:
- Download the installer from the website (as stated above)
- Once the download is complete, you lunch the program
- When you start the program, it automatically checks for updates
- Click the “Drivers” tab, and any available updates will be displayed. But if you notice that the program hasn’t done any recent checks for an update, then you can click the “Check for updates” button
- Click the “Download driver” button to download an available update
- Install the drivers. You can choose either to use the Express or Custom installation. Most advanced users will prefer the Custom installation, this option will give you the opportunity to choose the particular drivers you want to install. Go ahead and Click on your preferred Installation button.
- Geforce takes care of all the installation work
Read Also: Vulkan Runtime Libraries – What is it? Is it Safe? How Can I Remove it?
Note: Remember to engage the services of the System Restore tool if anything goes wrong during the process.
