Disable NVIDIA Streamer Service and other NVIDIA processes
NVIDIA Streamer Service, NVIDIA Streamer Network Service and NVIDIA Streamer User Agent are three of the many processes running on Windows machines that are powered by recent NVIDIA video cards.
NVIDIA is notorious for pushing the limits when it comes to adding new services and processes to its drivers, and if you check your process listing on your Windows PC, you may very well see more than 10 different NVIDIA processes running on it.
You can verify that easily by using Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Windows Task Manager and scrolling down to processes starting with the letter N.
Some of these processes may not be needed at all, and chance is good that the NVIDIA Streamer related services fall into this category.
NVIDIA Streamer Service
A recent check on a gaming machine revealed nine NVIDIA processes, and that is after using the custom installation option during installation of the graphics card driver on the system (not installing any 3D content).
So what is the NVIDIA Streamer Service being used for? It has been designed to stream games from the PC to NVIDIA Shield devices.
If you don't own a Shield, it is completely useless to you. What makes this a bad practice in my opinion is that the streaming services are running automatically regardless of whether a Shield device is owned or not.
There is no need to have these processes run on Windows machines all the time (or at all), and it makes sense to disable them as it may improve gaming performance on systems on top of that.
Disable the Nvidia Streamer Service
Disabling the service is thankfully pretty easy. Here is what you need to do:
- Tap on the Windows-key on your keyboard, type services.msc and hit enter.
- Double-click on Nvidia Streamer Service in the services window.
- Click on the Stop button to disable it for the session.
- You may receive a message stating that disabling this service will also stop the NVIDIA Streamer Network Service.
- Click on Yes if the prompt appears.
- Doing so terminates the running processes, but you are not done yet.
- Switch the startup type from automatic to disabled.
- Click Apply.
Other NVIDIA services and their purpose
This takes care of three of the ten or so NVIDIA services running on your Windows machine. Depending on how you use your video card, you may be able to disable even more processes.
- NVIDIA Backend (NvBackend.exe) - This is part of Nvidia GeForce Experience.
- NVIDIA Capture Server (nvspcaps64.exe) - Also part of GeForce Experience powering the ShadowPlay functionality. ShadowPlay enables you to record your games on your computer.
- NVIDIA GeForce Experience Service (GfExperienceService.exe) - The main GeForce Experience service.
- NVIDIA Network Service (NvNetworkService.exe) - Also installed with the GeForce Experience service. It prevents the update feature to work correctly which means that you won't get new driver notifications or game setting update notifications anymore. If is however not required to run GeForce Experience, and you may disable it. You will get an error dialog box however when you run GeForce Experience after stopping the Network Service (you find it under Services: stop it there and change its startup type to disabled or manual).
- NVIDIA User Experience Driver Component (nvxdsync.exe) - Virtually no information about the process is found on the Internet. The few resources found suggest it is used for 3D only.
Many of these processes are related to the GeForce Experience. If you don't require any of those, then it may be best to uninstall GeForce Experience from Windows and to avoid installing it again during driver updates.
You may also find NVIDIA Capture Server Proxy when you are managing your startup items, and may disable it as well if you don't capture game content.
On Windows 7 and earlier, do the following:
- Tap on the Windows-key, type msconfig.exe and hit enter.
- Locate NVIDIA Capture Server Proxy and disable it in the program window that opens.
If you are using Windows 8 or newer, do the following instead:
- Use Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager.
- Click on More Details if you have not done so previously already.
- Switch to Startup.
- Right-click on the name and select disable from the context menu.
Closing Words
Please note that some of these services and processes may be reset when you install driver updates.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help