Graphics card drivers are one of the most important parts of the operating system. These are responsible for ensuring that the graphics can work and, furthermore, that it is capable of giving the maximum possible performance, especially when playing games. Although Windows installs some generic drivers when we install the system, if we really want to take full advantage of it, it is necessary to install the latest version of these by hand, since it is much more complete. However, both NVIDIA and AMD include, along with their drivers, a large amount of software, bloatware, that surely we are not interested in installing. And this is where NVSlimmer comes in.
NVIDIA drivers install, in addition to drivers, many pieces of software that we may not want. For example, we talked about GeForce Experience, HD Audio, Shield drivers, and of course telemetry. And although we can disable some of the options during the installation, there are many others that we cannot.
NVSlimmer is a simple, totally free tool designed specifically for this. With this program we will be able to take control over the driver package and choose exactly what we want, or do not want, to be installed on our computer. This program allows us to add or remove, step by step, what we want to install on the PC. In this way, once the installation is customized, we can carry out the installation.
All the elements that we will be able to remove from the NVIDIA driver with NVSlimmer are:
- Optimus support.
- HD audio.
- PhysX.
- USB-C driver.
- GeForce Experience.
- GeForce Experience streaming service.
- ShadowPlay.
- nView.
- Automatic driver update.
- Visual C ++ runtime.
- Node.js.
- AbHub.
- Nvidia Bakcend.
- NvContainer.
- Process and module monitoring driver.
- Nvidia controller platform and framework.
- Telemetry
- Virtual Audio Driver.
- Virtual Host Controller.
- WMI provider.
- Shield wireless controller support.
- Update core.
- FrameView SDK.
All this, in addition, through a very simple interface, so that we will not have any difficulty cleaning the driver of all unwanted elements. Let’s see how it works.
How to thin the NVIDIA driver and clean it
This tool does not include any version of the driver, but we will have to download it ourselves from this website . We will select the type, the product, the operating system, the type of driver and thus we will download the latest version to our computer.
Once we have the driver installer, instead of installing it, we will execute this program, and the first thing we will do is tell it where we have saved the driver that we are going to clean and install.
As we can see, this program will show us all the components that make up the graphics driver . And all of them are the ones that install automatically when we run it from the installer. We can see that there are mandatory elements, such as the Core Display and the Install Core, other elements that are recommended (such as PhysX or GeForce Experience) and others that either are useless, or we do not want to install them, such as telemetry. At the top of the window we can see the version of the driver that we are going to install, useful to make sure we are working with the latest one available.
We must mark the drivers that we do want to be installed, and leave those that we do not unchecked. Once done, we can install them all from the same program, by clicking on “Install”, or create our own reduced installer from the “RePackage” button.
We will choose where to save the new NVIDIA drivers package that we are going to generate and that’s it. The program will begin to extract all the driver components, and will create a new package (in our case) with everything we have selected.
Now we can install the new package on our PC, or on any other, saving space and preventing all that unwanted software from being installed.
Download NVSlimmer
This program is open source (although not free), and we can download it without paying anything from this link . The developer always distributes the latest version from Dropbox, in a ZIP, so we must make sure to download the complete ZIP , and not just one of the program’s executables, so that everything works well.
Once the ZIP is downloaded, we unzip it into a folder, place the NVIDIA driver in the same folder (for convenience) and that’s it. We can now use this program to lighten the driver and remove all unwanted elements.
Alternatives to NVSlimmer
The NVIDIA driver installation wizard itself allows us to choose some of the elements that we want or do not want to install. But this is insufficient, since the most important elements, such as telemetry, we cannot configure.
Therefore, if we are one of those who like to have everything controlled on our PC, it is necessary, or to opt for NVSlimmer, or for an alternative to customize the NVIDIA drivers .
NV Updater
NV Updater is a much more complete program, in addition to being free and open source, which will allow us to better manage all the elements that are installed with the NVIDIA drivers. This software not only helps us clean the driver from scratch, but it also helps us keep them always up to date without the need to depend on GeForce Experience. With it we will be able to install new drivers by eliminating:
- All telemetry.
- GeForce Experience.
- Shield Controller and everything related to wireless controls.
- Optimus display.
- ShadowPlay.
- NvContainer.
- NvvHCI.
- Nvidia PhysX.
A very simple program to use, a must-have for any owner of an NVIDIA graphic, which we can download from the following link .
