If you are a PC gamer, you will almost certainly be familiar with Nvidia, as one of the major producers of GPUs for PC, as well as being behind the GeForce Now streaming service. The Nvidia control panel is the control system for your graphics driver settings, and any other Nvidia utilities that your system uses. It allows you to have control over the way you set up your graphics driver, to give you the best gaming experience possible. So if you have been struggling to access the control panel, or if you simply cannot find it, this is what you need to know.
How to open Nvidia control panel
If you are running an older version of Windows, then this is what you need to do:
Windows XP:
- Right‐click the Windows desktop, then click NVIDIA Control Panel from the context menu, or
- From the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel, then in the Control Panel window, double‐click the NVIDIA Control Panel icon.
Windows Vista/Windows 7:
- Right‐click the Windows desktop, then click NVIDIA Control Panel from the context menu, or
- Click the Start icon, then from the Start menu click Control Panel.
- From the Classic View of the Windows Vista Control Panel, click the app's icon, or
- From the Control Panel Home view of the Windows Vista Control Panel, click Additional Options and then click on the Control Panel from the Additional Options page.
If, however, you are using Windows 10, it is very straightforward:
- Right click on any free space on the desktop
- Click Nvidia control panel
- The control panel will then open
In most cases, this will be all you need to do. But what can you do if the control panel appears to be missing? That's what we'll discuss next.
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What to do if the Nvidia control panel is missing
If the control panel has somehow vanished from view, there are some things you can try to fix it:
- Press Windows + R on your keyboard
- Type control to open your Windows Control Panel
- Double click onNvidia's Control Panel
- From here, select the Desktop dropdown menu
- Check the box that says "Add desktop context menu"
You should then be able to access the Nvidia control panel as mentioned above. On occasion though, especially if you have recently upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, you still might not be able to find it. You can download the control panel through the Windows Store Apphere. It may also be the case that there has been an issue with the driver update process. If this happens, you may need to manually upgrade the version you are using. To do this:
- Click on Apps -> Apps & Features.
- Locate "NVIDIA Control Panel". If you see it listed, then the next step is to manually upgrade the version.
- First uninstall the application.
- Then go to the Windows App Store to download the latest version.