NVCleanstall v1.16.0

NVCleanstall allows you to customize the NVIDIA GeForce driver package by removing components you don’t need. This not only ensures order, but also reduces disk load and memory space.

Unlike a custom installation of NVIDIA, you can deselect packages such as “Stereo 3D Glasses“, “USB-C“, Optimized for laptops or telemetry from NVIDIA drivers.

Troubleshooting with NVCleanstall

Once downloaded and launched, NVCleanstall will ask you which version of NVIDIA drivers you would like to install.

You can use the default values to let the program determine the best driver version for your hardware. Alternatively, change the option from Install the best driver for my hardware to Manually select driver version to do just that.

By enabling the Show all versions options to the right above the drop-down menu, the list of available drivers will also show versions that are (theoretically) incompatible with your hardware. We recommend that you avoid them to minimize the likelihood of problems occurring.

You can also use an already downloaded driver by selecting Use driver files on disk and then pointing NVCleanstall to their directory.

The fourth option relates not to the drivers, but to the application itself, since it allows you to install it on your computer instead of using it as a separate “portable” application.

You can also enable the additional option at the bottom of the window to check periodically for driver updates in the background as indicated.

We chose the first option for this guide and let NVCleanstall identify and load the best drivers for our hardware.

The most magical thing will happen in the next step. NVCleanstall will present all the driver components and allow you to select which ones you would like to keep.

If you don’t know what each of them does, NVCleanstall offers an explanation on the right side of its window when you click on them. Use these helpful snippets to help you decide what to keep and what to lose.

NVCleanstall also offers three presets, presented as links at the bottom of the window.

All includes everything that is in the drivers.
It is recommended to turn off anything that most people would not notice is missing.
Minimum contains only basic information to ensure the functionality of the GPU (aka display driver).

Despite the apparent choice, in practice many components depend on each other. So you can’t freely enable or disable anything in the component list. By clicking on a feature, you can see if it depends on other components (and which ones) in the “Required“ section. For example, to use GeForce Experience, you also need to installNV Container,Telemetry,NV Backendand >NodeJS.

The worst part is that it all works like a chain reaction, with one function leading to another. Before you know it, you may end up with a complete driver installation again.

Have you decided to enable ShadowPlay to support hardware accelerated video capture? You will also need Virtual Audio and Process Monitor. However, you will also need GeForce Experience and this, as we mentioned above, in turn requires even more components.

However, this is the best way to ensure that your driver installation is as clean as possible. Start by deselecting everything except the display driver (required) or select the minimal preset. Then add only the features you want, including all the necessary components. Finally, click on Next.

NVCleanstall will begin preparing the installation files. After that, it will offer several more options with which you can customize the installation of drivers.

We recommend that you enable disable installer telemetry and advertising and perform a clean install. By enabling these options, you will avoid sending information to NVIDIA and

remove any remnants of existing drivers.

Enable Install the NVIDIA Control Panel app from the Windows Store if you need an additional path to driver settings.

Disable automatic express installation to view each step of the driver installation process. We recommend that you also ignore the Add Hardware Support as well as anything under the Show Expert Settings section unless you know what you’re doing or don’t need a specific setting.

Leave digital signature recovery enabled. This may be required for some other settings.

When everything is ready, click “Next“ again.

Once NVCleanstall has configured the driver installer according to your preferences, you can click on “Install“ to launch it.

As for other options:

Show in folder allows you to view the installer with your default file manager.
A build package can turn your customized installer into an executable file that you can use on other computers.

The process of individually installing drivers is no different from the official approach, so it should be commonplace. Launch it and select Agree and Continue.

Select the Custom (Advanced) path instead of the Express (Recommended) path and click Next.

Make sure that only the components you selected are enabled and will be installed, and click Next again.

Once the drivers are installed and the installer completes, you can return to NVCleanstall and close its window.

Although some components will be lost, your core drivers will remain intact. This way, you can still use your GPU as normal, tweaking the most important driver settings, but without the added cost that you would never otherwise use.

Download NVCleanstall v1.16.0

Latest NVCleanstall updates

NVCleanstall v1.16.0

Added support for disabling Ansel
Added a new installation action “Copy Folder” that copies the output directory ofNVCleanstallto a folder of your choice
Fixed “automatically accepting unsigned driver warning” not working in Windows 10
Fixed crashes on systems with English (US) locale settings and the decimal separator set to a value other than ‘.’
Fixed patch NVEnc not working on newer driver versions

NVCleanstall v1.15.1

The title screen now displays whether the installed driver is a Studio
Fixed a crash when checking for background driver updates
Added setting option to disable multi-plane overlay (MPO)
Added a configuration option that allows you to remove the restriction on parallel session encoding NVENC (github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch)
Improved error message for the “Build Package” option
Build package compression is now limited to 20 threads to avoid out-of-memory errors
The build package now displays its output during startup

NVCleanstall v1.14.0

Fixed a bug where checking for driver updates did not work
If a driver update is detected, try not to interfere with your games and delay the pop-up notification
If digital signature recovery fails because the KeyIso service is disabled, display an appropriate error message
Added the ability to ignore the “unsigned driver” warning when selecting a signature mode compatible with EAC

NVCleanstall v1.13.0

Getting driver versions on the first page is now much faster and consumes less bandwidth
Download files are now split into smaller chunks so they can be cached and downloaded at faster speeds
Added support for NVIDIA Studio
Choices made on the settings page will be saved and can be restored with one click on subsequent launches
Recent drivers that include the NVIDIA control panel application do not display the “Install DCH Control Panel“ option
Updated descriptions of some driver packages
If “DLSS Indicator” is enabled on the running system, first check the “DLSS Indicator” checkbox on the Settings page
DLSS indicator can now be disabled by unchecking the option on the settings page