7 Methods to Fix Nvidia Control Panel Missing Error

It is an utility that helps us change graphics setting from within an application. It saves us hard-work of changing bios settings. In following article , we will discuss fixes to issues with Nvidia control panel missing or not found. The following steps are easy to follow and implement so lets learn more.

How does Nvidia control panel disappears ?

It does not. The control Panel either wasn’t installed correctly, or it failed to identify your hardware.It can also mean that control panel is simply hidden

Fortunately there are fixes around this problem. Some of our methods might require to make changes to device drivers. So we recommend backing up existing display drivers in case anything goes wrong.

Lets see the ways to fix Nvidia control panel missing issue.

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Method 1 : To update your Nvidia drivers

Nvidia control panel is accompanied with the drivers. Which means that you can restore back your Nvidia panel by updating your drivers.

To update your display drivers,

• Go to start menu and search for “device manager”
• Under display Adapter option, search for your Nvidia card
• Double tap on it and go to”driver” section
• Click on “update” and select “search for updates automatically”
• Alternatively, you can download drivers for your device from Nvidia download page

Once you have updated your drivers, restart your computer. This should fix your Nvidia control panel missing problem

Method 2 : Un-hide the Nvidia control Panel

Sometimes the panel disappears from your desktop context menu ( the menu that pops up when you right click ). We will go to control panel to unhide it.

Follow these steps for unhiding the panel

• Go to start and search for “control panel” or you can type in win+R  and type control in the run menu
• In control Panel , look for Nvidia control panel . Try using “large icons” for faster search

• If you see this option listed, then that means that Nvidia control Panel was simply hidden
• Click on it to open it
• In the options menu, choose “add to desktop context menu” and save your settings

The next time you hit right click on your desktop, your Nvidia control panel should be visible to you.

If the problem appears again, you now know where to look for again

Method 3 : Restarting Nvidia services

By restarting one or more Nvidia services that run in the background, you can fix the control panel missing issue.

To see all running services in the system,

• Hit win+R and type in services.msc to open services menu
• Now look for the following services

1.  The NVIDIA Display service
2.  NVIDIA LocalSystem Container service
3.  The NVIDIA NetworkService Container
4.  And the NVIDIA Telemetry Container

• Right click on these services one by one and click on restart
• Repeat for all Nvidia services

See if you are able to fix Nvidia control panel missing problem. If not then read on

Method 4 : Uninstalling everything related to nvidia and reinstall drivers again

If the issue can not be fixed by any other fix, then reinstalling the whole thing would surely fix it.

We recommend creating a backup of the drivers using some free utility like drivermax or drivereasy.

Before we actually uninstall the existing drivers and then perform the installation , you can running the driver installer again. It should detect any existing drivers and fix any issues with them. Also fixing the control panel missing issue.

Uninstalling drivers in windows can lead to issues and crashes on the spot. We recommend doing this through safe mode

• Go to “Device manager” as shown in step 1 above
• This time instead of update , we will “uninstall”

Once the driver is uninstalled,

• Go to start and search “programs and features”
• Search for any programs related to Nvidia and uninstall them
• Once done , Restart your computer

Now you have successfully uninstalled Nvidia programs from your computer.

Now you can download the correct version of the driver from Nvidia download page and install them again. The Nvidia control panel will also get installed with the driver

Also Read: PS4 Port forwarding | How to do & Fix Errors

Method 5 : Adding the Nvidia container service to startup folder

Startup folder contains all non-windows services that are required to run at the startup. These can be chosen by the user and can be accessed using shell:startup 

• Firstly we need to locate NVDisplay.Container.exe
• Go to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Display.NvContainer 
• You will see the NVDisplay.Container.exe
• Right click on it and select copy
• Once done , hit win+R to open run menu and type in shell:startup
• You should see a folder pop up
• Right click inside the folder and select “paste shortcut”

Once done restart your computer to see if the Nvidia control panel missing issue is fixed

Method 6 : Running the Nvidia control panel from physical location

Physical location means the actual location where the Nvidia program is kept in the windows. If it doesn’t show up in desktop context menu then you can also run it from its location

The location is C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\control panel client

• Once you are in control panel client folder, you will now see a program called nvcplui.exe
• Right click on it and “run it as administrator”.

Once the control panel is open, you can now go to desktop options to add it to your desktop context menu

This should resolve your Nvidia control panel missing issue. Next time you right click on your desktop, you should see the Nvidia control panel in place

Finishing up,

The Nvidia control panel is a very useful utility that helps you control all kinds of graphics settings for your games and display. Its vanishing away is a thing that needs fixing.

We hope that you fixed the missing control panel issue using one or more of the methods listed above . Cheers !