NVIDIA drops the Control Panel for Windows 11 after 20 years of faithful service and goes all in on its newer app

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition held to a blue sky — There's one app to rule them all from now on for NVIDIA GPU users. (Image credit: Windows Central | Ben Wilson)

It was inevitable that NVIDIA would one day sunset the Control Panel app for Windows 11, and that day has finally arrived.

As of the latest driver, 610.47, NVIDIA Control Panel will no longer be installed as part of the package. All of its features have been migrated to the newer NVIDIA App, and this is now the one-stop shop for everything you need to manage for your GPU.

NVIDIA Control Panel had a great run, with 20 years of faithful service, and it's been a staple on my PC for longer than I can remember. It did what you needed it to do without worrying about looking pretty and was always just a right-click away.

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You can still use NVIDIA Control Panel, if you wish, but it will no longer be supported with any features, fixes, or updates of any kind. If you have it installed currently, it will stay there with the latest driver update, unless you do a clean installation.

If you do, it'll be gone for good, and to get it back if you really want it, you'll need to go and download it from the Microsoft Store.

The only exception for now will be RTX Pro owners, as all of the feature sets for those graphics cards have not yet been migrated over to the NVIDIA App. This will happen at a later date, but it is business as usual for the time being.

A screenshot of the NVIDIA Control Panel app showing G-Sync setup settings. — Pour one out for the old workhorse, finally retired after two decades of service. (Image credit: Windows Central)

I don't personally use the NVIDIA App all that often, but part of that was because I just used NVIDIA Control Panel for what I needed. Aside from driver updates, I rarely touch the main app.

I've had a little poke around, and it all seems fine. Nothing much to get excited about, but at least now everything that an NVIDIA user might need is all in one place. You don't have to log in with an account, either, these days, which is sure to be good news for many out there who haven't used it to this point.

20 years is a long time for one piece of software, though. Change isn't always welcome, but in this case, I think we'll be just fine.

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Richard Devine is the Managing Editor at Windows Central, where he combines a deep love for the open-source community with expert-level technical coverage. Whether he’s hunting for the next big project on GitHub, fine-tuning a WSL workflow, or breaking down the latest meta in Call of Duty, Forza, and The Division 2, Richard focuses on making complex tech accessible to every kind of user. If it’s happening in the world of Windows or PC gaming, he’s probably already knee-deep in the code (or the lobbies). Follow him on X and Mastodon.