Disable Nvidia Telemetry tracking on Windows

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 7, 2016
Updated • Aug 13, 2019
Tutorials
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Telemetry -- read tracking -- seems to be everywhere these days. Microsoft pushes it on Windows, and web and software companies use it as well.

While there is certainly some benefit to it on a larger scale, as it may enable these companies to identify broader issues, it is undesirable from a user perspective.

Part of that comes from the fact that companies fail to disclose what is being collected and how data is stored and handled once it leaves the user system.

In the case of Nvidia, Telemetry gets installed alongside the driver package. While you may -- and should -- customize the installation of the Nvidia driver so that only the bits that you require are installed, there is no option to disable the Telemetry components from being installed. These do get installed even if you only install the graphics driver itself in the custom installation dialog.

Disable Nvidia Telemetry tracking on Windows

Most users who use PCs with Nvidia video cards probably don't even know that they are tracked by the software. The Nvidia telemetry service runs in the background on user log on, and additionally once a day.

As is the case with these kind of tracking services, there is little information found on the data that it collects.

You can check the Windows Task Scheduler to list all third-party tasks that run on the system. To do so, tap on the Windows-key, type Task Scheduler, and select Task Scheduler from the list of results.

There you find listed Nvidia tasks, some of which are related to Telemetry (note that the list may look different on your PC based on the driver version and the components that you install).

  • NvTmMon -- Nvidia Telemetry Monitor -- runs C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvTmMon.exe
  • NvTmRep -- Nvidia crash and Telemetry Reporter -- runs C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvTmRep.exe
  • NvTmRepCR* --A crash reporter task. Found three times with the numbers 1-3 on a test system after the most recent driver installation.
  • NvProfileUpdaterDaily -- NVIDIA Profile Updater -- C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvProfileUpdater64.exe
  • NvProfileUpdaterOnLogon -- NVIDIA Profile Updater -- C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvProfileUpdater64.exe

Other Tasks

  • NvTmRepOnLogon -- Nvidia Profile Updater -- runs C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\Update Core\NvTmRep.exe --logon
  • NvDriverUpdateCheckDaily -- Nvidia Container -- C:\Program Files\nvidia corporation\nvcontainer\nvcontainer.exe
  • NvNodeLauncher -- NVIDIA NvNode Launcher -- C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\NvNode\nvnodejslauncher.exe

Disable Nvidia Telemetry

Disabling the Nvidia Telemetry tasks has no ill-effect on the system. The video card works exactly as before and you can use all of the features that it supports.

disable nvidia telemetry

Simply right-click on one of the Nvidia Telemetry tasks in the Task Scheduler, and select the "disable" option from the context menu.

This blocks the tasks from being run. Repeat the process for the two remaining Telemetry tasks, and any other tasks that you spot there that you may not require.

Dealing with Telemetry elsewhere

It appears that Nvidia has baked Telemetry tracking directly into the NVDisplay.Container.exe process. While you can (and probably should) still disable the scheduled tasks, you cannot defeat Telemetry in its entirety anymore easily.

When you check Services on Windows after installing a recent driver version, you will notice that the Nvidia Telemetry Container service NvTelemetryContainer is not installed anymore. You find a different service there called Nvidia Display Container LS but since it appears to be used for more than just Telemetry, may want to leave it alone. It can be disabled, however, and games will still run (the right-click desktop shortcut to the Nvidia Control Panel is removed as a consequence, there may be other fallout).

The following actions require that you delete files and folders on your computer system. We suggest you create a backup of folders and files before deletion so that you may restore them if the need arises.

  1. Open File Explorer / Explorer.
  2. Go to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Display.NvContainer\plugins\LocalSystem
  3. Delete DisplayDriverRAS
  4. Go to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\
  5. Delete DisplayDriverRAS folder.

We recommend that you use firewall software (such as Windows Firewall Control) to monitor or block any Nvidia process from making outbound connections. Note that this may limit GeForce Experience functionality if you have enabled the feature.

nvtelemetry.dll

A new report suggests that Nvidia Telemetry still works in the latest drivers even if you follow all the guidelines mentioned above. Nvidia seems to have baked this into the file nvtelemetry.dll which you need to delete to block C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Display.NvContainer\NVDisplay.Container.exe from connecting to *.gfe.nvidia.com

You need to delete or rename nvtelemetry.dll on the system. Search for the file and rename it in any location you find it.

Disabling the Nvidia Telemetry Service (for old drivers only)

The installation of Nvidia drivers on a Windows system adds a telemetry service to the device as well which you may want to disable.

This is done in the following way:

  1. Tap on the Windows-key on your keyboard, type services.msc, and hit the Enter-key. This should open the list of installed Services of the local PC.
  2. Locate the service Nvidia Telemetry Container, and double-click on it.
  3. Click on the stop button to stop the service from running.
  4. Select disabled as the startup type.
  5. Click ok to complete the process.

Note: These tasks may be re-enabled when you update or Nvidia drivers (for instance after completely removing the drivers). It is suggested therefore to always check the Task Scheduler after Nvidia driver updates to make sure these tasks are not enabled again.

You can use third-party software like the excellent Autoruns as well to manage these telemetry tasks. Simply run the program and switch to the Scheduled Tasks tab when it opens to manage all tasks scheduled on the system. There you find listed the same Nvidia tasks which you can delete or disable. (via MajorGeeks)

Update: A software program has been created that you may use as well to disable Nvidia Telemetry services and tasks on Windows.

Now You: How do you handle Telemetry on your system?

Summary
Disable Nvidia Telemetry tracking on Windows
Article Name
Disable Nvidia Telemetry tracking on Windows
Description
Find out how to disable Nvidia Telemetry that gets installed with the driver installation on machines running the Microsoft Windows operating system.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. v120 said on February 24, 2020 at 12:06 pm
    Reply

    C:\Windows\System32\DRIVERS\
    monitor.sys 30 KB
    nvlddmkm.sys 20.3 MB

    Happy End!

    1. Anonymous said on July 9, 2020 at 7:48 pm
      Reply

      So i just delete the files?

  2. Ali said on May 10, 2019 at 2:28 pm
    Reply

    I enabled telemetry for my main non secure firefox instance and also windows itself (basic) although i could disable it via group policy but i like to get the info so windows become more stable and better in the future.

    1. Anonymous said on November 5, 2019 at 7:16 am
      Reply

      Yeah like hopefully your bubble not burst after this:
      Like even 10% of the data they’ve collected from their users will be use for “product improvement” and not 1000%/100% selling all to some dark ugly “market” down there for some quick billions $ in private profit for their own or even worse use to train/selling for the use of “ML/AI” also for Personalized Ads, E-Fingerprint tracking & identifications…
      “If something is free, then you’re the product”.

  3. Toni said on March 26, 2019 at 9:17 am
    Reply

    This process has a problem: if I disable telemetry tracking, when I want to open GeForce Experience app, is not launched. I enable telemetry again and GeForce Experience launches without problem.

    1. Anonymous said on April 7, 2019 at 2:32 pm
      Reply

      Simple solution: Don’t use GFE.

  4. Anonymous said on January 11, 2019 at 5:44 am
    Reply

    will this disable my Shadowplay, instan replay, exc ??

  5. Someone said on March 30, 2018 at 7:00 am
    Reply

    Thanks for the article. So telemetry is the new politically correct name for Spyware. ok. Nice to know. Disabled. :)

    Oh and Microsoft isn’t the only company doing “telemetry”. Check Google analytics (free) on most all sites and if you have Chrome and logged into Google/Youtube… shut that off (logout unless you need to be logged in).

    Google can see what sites you are at, what web pages you are viewing and where you’re going to next. These are private companies.

    So why Facebook got slammed for what these other companies are doing is sad and hilarious at the same time. Of course FB has the maturity level of Zuckerberg, hence why its like it is. ;)’

    1. Ali said on May 10, 2019 at 2:33 pm
      Reply

      Telemetry isn’t always spyware.
      if it won’t be how software developer should become aware of problems with this much variety of software mixes, hardwares and … but they should use it sanely and this is only trust problem.
      if you use their OS, so you probably should have trust them to only use minor necessary information like you OS version, apps versions, and some critical settings that can affect system performance and compatibility.

  6. Dave said on November 26, 2017 at 5:39 pm
    Reply

    There may be an easier way. I hate to say it but, let the OS update your Nvidia drivers.

    I just did a fresh install of windows 10 and the *latest Nvidia driver was automatically downloaded and installed with out any of the extra baggage,

    * I do mean latest, 388.13, I had been using 388.00 with my 980ti.

  7. dave said on October 27, 2017 at 2:24 am
    Reply

    most people might not notice theres an option “allow experience improvement program” auto checked in the help drop down menu of the nvidia control panel(right click on desktop). not sure what it is or if it changes anything, but it sounds telemetry relaed

  8. Bastiats_Ghost said on August 16, 2017 at 5:26 am
    Reply

    You can prevent the telemetry from even installing with a clever trick:

    1) .exe files can be opened with a program like 7Zip and extracted into a folder.
    2) You can then delete the folder labeled NvTelemetry and install the drivers normally by launching Setup.exe in the extracted driver folder without any telemetry whatsoever.

    This works for now, although Nvidia could become more insidious about it and plant the telemetry files inside the main graphics driver.

  9. WakeUp said on June 8, 2017 at 9:45 am
    Reply

    for /f “tokens=2 delims=\” %%x in (‘schtasks /query /fo:list ^| findstr NvTm’) do schtasks /Delete /TN %%x /F

  10. Tom Hawack said on May 20, 2017 at 11:23 am
    Reply

    I installed latest GeForce 382.05 Driver two days ago and *only because security issues* had been reported concerning pre-382.05 drivers.

    I opened Windows Services and noticed indeed the new NVIDIA Telemetry Container (NvTelemetryContainer) service, running and set to autostart. I stopped it and set it to disabled.

    From there on no Nvidia tasks in the task Scheduler and no Nvidia Telemetry spotted by Autoruns.

  11. Sahil said on April 25, 2017 at 9:35 am
    Reply

    How did you collect the sample data set?
    Are they not using https, or some encrypted protocol?

  12. Geek El said on April 24, 2017 at 4:24 pm
    Reply

    Using process monitor found that nvcontainer has telemetry running in it. Even i have disabled it from shedule and autoruns.

  13. max said on April 7, 2017 at 3:23 am
    Reply

    1 New driver (6 April ) , have separate telemetry service and install wo user permission !
    2 in control panel upper in help menu they make check mark to turn off telemetry , BUT it ( fake ) don’t do anything (((

    PS : Sorry for my english (

  14. Yanta said on March 6, 2017 at 2:12 am
    Reply

    On my sons Windows 10 PC he had the three tasks, which I disabled. However, this did not stop the service running, and if I ended it, it restarted again. I found that a service was created (set to automatic of course), and disabling that stopped it restarting.

    Now, I’m running the same version of the drivers as my son, but I’m on Windows 7 x64. I do not have this service or the tasks. The only difference between our installations (Aside from the OS), is that I NEVER install the User Experience bloatware. I wonder if the two are linked?

    1. Wiseman said on November 9, 2017 at 2:42 pm
      Reply

      all you need to do is to find telemetry process in task manager, then right-click it and choose open file location. then when your system opens it, just rename the extension of the file from exe to something else like exex so your system will not recognize it as an aplication. then just kill the said process and in will not restart again as system will be unable to find this process or run it.

  15. Daniel said on November 18, 2016 at 10:58 pm
    Reply

    Of course they are spying on people.
    Why do you think they keep their driver closed?

    1. Ali said on May 10, 2019 at 2:35 pm
      Reply

      Telemetry isn’t always spyware.
      if it won’t be how software developer should become aware of problems with this much variety of software mixes, hardwares and … but they should use it sanely and this is only trust problem.
      if you use their OS, so you probably should have trust them to only use minor necessary information like you OS version, apps versions, and some critical settings that can affect system performance and compatibility.

      closed source is a way for keeping corporate secrets from competitiors.

      1. Richard said on June 10, 2022 at 3:43 am
        Reply

        Telemetry is *ALWAYS* spyware. You are one of the poor, mislead sheeple who believes otherwise because that’s the only way it works. I’m a professional programmer for 30 years, so I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are NEVER altruistic motives.

  16. Paul(us) said on November 9, 2016 at 10:14 pm
    Reply

    Relax, NVIDIA’s telemetry didn’t just start spying on you!

    http://www.howtogeek.com/280101/relax-nvidias-telemetry-didnt-just-start-spying-on-you/

  17. Old Coot said on November 9, 2016 at 6:54 pm
    Reply

    Just disabled the 3 you mentioned. piece of cake. will keep an eye on Nvida updates.
    thank you, remember the pig Latin “Illigitumus Non Carborundum”

  18. beergas said on November 8, 2016 at 11:16 pm
    Reply

    I tore out everything from Nvidia driver (s) due to losing my LED monitor signal with it. Various times after starting Windows 10 x64 Pro AU and GTX 950 card. Nothing I could do would stop that. PC would stay live but no signal detected msg and black screen.
    Finally read the Net and many common msgs about the 900 series doing this. People have redone mobo, power supply, ram, etc. to no help.
    At first remove using the DU program or in Control Panel would soon see it back again. Disable option worked until Windows would start it up after some upgrade. So fully pulled any signs of it. Ok now. Hence the 3 lines don’t appear in the mentioned library. Don’t think this occurs in the following Series 10 but not sure yet. Thanks for article.

  19. Corky said on November 8, 2016 at 5:32 pm
    Reply

    So it turns out the telemetry stuff is part of the Geforce experience and has been since version 1.0

    Another good reason, if you needed one, to always choose custom when installing anything and check what’s getting installed and if you need it.

  20. Yuliya said on November 8, 2016 at 4:10 pm
    Reply

    Damn Nvidia. I’m using an older driver that I had on my HDD because I could not be bothered downloading a newer one last time I installed W7, updating Windows alone is painful enough. I wanted to update it at some point, but now I’m even less determined to do so..

  21. Helper said on November 8, 2016 at 5:40 am
    Reply

    You can use e.g. 7zip to extract the files, no need to run the installer twice.

    1. Armond said on November 17, 2016 at 10:29 am
      Reply

      Thanks for the idea.

  22. war59312 said on November 8, 2016 at 12:52 am
    Reply

    I installed 375.70 on Win10 x64 and none of that crap was installed so must not be for every install.

  23. Armond said on November 7, 2016 at 9:05 pm
    Reply

    I delete every folder except Display.Driver, HDAudio and NVI2 before running setup.exe in the extracted folder. Of course I first have to cancel the installation when extraction completed. I then feel more comfortable:)

  24. ARQ E TEC said on November 7, 2016 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    So I looked at the sample… that sure seems a lot of info they are collecting… not everything has to do with graphical and/or pc performance and compatibility. Still what worries me the most is that you have a sample so it’s safe to assume data logging isn’t even encrypted?

  25. George said on November 7, 2016 at 5:38 pm
    Reply

    Now we have to worry about device drivers, too? Incredible… For this reason alone, I could easily choose an AMD card instead in the future.

    1. Robert said on July 27, 2018 at 8:57 am
      Reply

      My thoughts, too.

  26. Terrence Dove said on November 7, 2016 at 4:34 pm
    Reply

    I found all six Nvidia entries in Task Manager. All six were disabled, but I didn’t disable them. (???)

  27. Albert said on November 7, 2016 at 1:46 pm
    Reply

    It is only in 375.70. I had 372.70 before and those tasks were not there. After an install of 375.70 the tasks appeared. And also the license agreement now comes with this text.

    3. CONSENT TO COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION
    Customer hereby acknowledges that the SOFTWARE accesses and collects both non-personally identifiable information and personally identifiable information about Customer and CUSTOMER SYSTEM as well as configures CUSTOMER SYSTEM in order to (a) properly optimize CUSTOMER SYSTEM for use with the SOFTWARE, (b) deliver content through the SOFTWARE, (c) improve NVIDIA products and services, and (d) deliver marketing communications. Information collected by the SOFTWARE includes, but is not limited to, CUSTOMER SYSTEM’S (i) hardware configuration and ID, (ii) operating system and driver configuration, (iii) installed games and applications, (iv) games and applications settings, performance, and usage data, and (iv) usage metrics of the SOFTWARE. To the extent that Customer uses the SOFTWARE, Customer hereby consents to all of the foregoing, and represents and warrants that Customer has the right to grant such consent.

    1. war59312 said on November 8, 2016 at 12:57 am
      Reply

      I did not get this and I just installed 375.70. So either they removed it already or only some people get this crap installed.

      OS is Win10 x64.

      Just looked at license.txt file as well and no such text.

      Installer info:

      375.70-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe

      Size: 373 MB (391,438,336 bytes)

      Digital signature of Wed. Oct 26, 2016 at 6:11:16 PM

      File Hashes:

      CRC32: 583E14AE
      MD5: 40EDC2653DD9B8D10744E869C3F4C08D
      SHA-1: 1B582A91E69005CEFEA00446ED66D2537EA5575F
      SHA-256: 4F41263BD25BE9BC1DD0AE7FDED90782C31BF2BD70C9D1AD73485F74BF84D5F3
      SHA-512: 9B98222C495037F1D75506D353B743929CA4A073BC725EB178DFABF5F7A30BAA17A2E4A5FCAB658535E23CA10E7DD6CD09402CDBA159B9B37AB0A5B763EB611E

    2. Tom Hawack said on November 7, 2016 at 2:00 pm
      Reply

      Thanks for the info. Martin, above, had answered the same to Anonymous but I wrote my comment too quickly without having read him.

      Nvidia Telemetry tracking starts with its version 375.70 – OK

      Another pain in the neck. “Telemetry — read tracking — seems to be everywhere these days. Microsoft pushes it on Windows, and web and software companies use it as well.” states Martin’s article. Indeed.

      As I see it there’s no possible compromise, no status quo, no gentleman’s agreement between major companies and their users : it is and remains a battle, a combat and perhaps a war. We have to deal with the bad guys’ malware and with several so-called good guys’ privacy issues, tracking to name it, spreading like fleas.

      Well, war it’ll be.

  28. Tom Hawack said on November 7, 2016 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    I have none of the tasks tasks mentioned in the article.
    I’m running GeForce Driver ver. 359.00 (I chose not to update from there on) and have since always stopped and set to disabled the Nvidia Display Driver service (required only Nvidia’s Control Panel).
    For the purpose of checking if Nvidia’s tasks were related to Nvidia Display Driver service, I’ve set it to auto and started the service : still no Nvidia tasks.

    Maybe do these tasks appear with earlier versions of Nvidia drivers only?

    Concerning system-wide telemetry (together with adblocking, privacy, security)
    1- ‘WindowsSpyBlocker’ at https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker
    2- SpyBot’s AntiBeacon (discovered recently)
    3- Peerblock with dedicated IP range lists
    4- SpywareBlaster
    5- ‘PC Tasks Optimizer’ application
    6- ‘Windows Privacy Tweaker’ application
    7- ‘Never10’, Gibson’s well known application
    8- DNSCrypt with SimpleDNSCrypt front-end application, using a dedicated domain blocking list
    9- HOSTS file with HostsMan front-end application, including 8 sources + my own.

    That’s about it.

  29. Anonymous said on November 7, 2016 at 11:23 am
    Reply

    Always installing only the driver and disabling the “NVIDIA Display Driver Service”, nothing is running in background here. Not found any telemetry task even in “autoruns” and for my part from NVIDIA nothing in Program Files (x86) like the NvNode folder? (NVIDIA driver v342.00 installed).

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on November 7, 2016 at 11:38 am
      Reply

      I think this is only part of the latest Nvidia drivers, e.g. 375.70.

      1. Anonymous said on November 7, 2016 at 2:25 pm
        Reply

        From the same anonymous: The NVIDIA v342.00 driver is the very recent latest driver compatible with my machine, coming with security updates I installed last week. I hope the next update will not come with that kind of spyware I can’t uncheck at the installation, scrongneugneu! Thanks Martin, I’ll watch that closely.

      2. Tom Hawack said on November 7, 2016 at 2:07 pm
        Reply

        We sure do call it “la rançon du progès”. Progrès, progrès … et mes mollets c’est du jarret ? (pour rester poli).

        We were complaining about so-called progress and it’s (inevitable) counter-progress (occasional) issues.

      3. Anonymous said on November 7, 2016 at 12:54 pm
        Reply

        So as always it seems telemetry is reserved for people running recent machines hehe. In France we call that “La rançon du progrès” :)

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