How to stop NVidia GeForce Experience interfering with V2 (Windows)

[awakenedbyowls]

For some reason this app for "optimising" games etc with my graphics card keeps opening and overlaying icons on the V2 suite 

How do I stop this?

Should I just uninstall Geforce Experience do I even need this? Maybe it's just bloatware..

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

keeps opening and overlaying icons on the V2 suite

What kind of icons? Screenshot?

Are you using the MSIX version of the V2 applications, or the MSI/EXE version that was more recently released?

I'm using the MSIX version, and GeForce Experience knows about Photo 2 (as I added it specifically) but it isn't interfering any way with the application that I've noticed.

 

[awakenedbyowls]

I just went to grab a screen shot and now it's not doing it anymore - no more unwanted icons 

No idea what version I'm using but for some reason (unlike V1) it won't let me have desktop icons

 

[awakenedbyowls]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What kind of icons? Screenshot?

Oh but there they are back - soon as I start using the software. See what I mean?

[walt.farrell]

If you open Nvidia GeForce Experience, do you have any of the V2 apps listed? (You will probably see Affinity Photo, or Affinity Designer. You need to look at the file location to see which one it's talking about.)

17 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

No idea what version I'm using but for some reason (unlike V1) it won't let me have desktop icons

Sounds like the MSIX version. There's a FAQ answer about getting desktop icons: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/167826-how-do-i-create-a-desktop-shortcut-for-affinity-v2-apps/

Also, you can uninstall the MSIX version and install an EXE/MSI version of you want: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/180014-affinity-v2-windows-installers-are-available-as-unsandboxed-msiexe-as-well-as-sandboxed-msix/

I do not think it will be related to the problem we're discussing here, though.

 

[GarryP]

If you don’t need the stuff that the GeForce Experience supplies – mostly gaming ‘extras’ that I could see – you can uninstall it and install just the drivers for the graphics card instead - you can get them from the NVIDIA website.

I did this a while back and my machine started to run much better because the Experience background processes were no longer running and taking resources – e.g. frequent disk scans, etc.

Note: You will need to remember to manually check for updates to the graphics driver yourself every now and again if you do this.

[awakenedbyowls]

On 2/13/2023 at 8:36 AM, GarryP said:

If you don’t need the stuff that the GeForce Experience supplies – mostly gaming ‘extras’ that I could see – you can uninstall it and install just the drivers for the graphics card instead - you can get them from the NVIDIA website.

I did this a while back and my machine started to run much better because the Experience background processes were no longer running and taking resources – e.g. frequent disk scans, etc.

Note: You will need to remember to manually check for updates to the graphics driver yourself every now and again if you do this.

Might have to do this. I can't see anywhere on the app to uncheck things I don't want the app to "optimise" - and I can't see anything on Affinity to check to block this app from interfering.

I'm not sure what it even does anyway? If all it does is check for driver updates then I don't see the point in this bloatware.

I'm not sure what from this list that appears in the settings I now have to uninstall?

[GarryP]

I didn’t know what it was for either but I did know that it (nvcontainer.exe ?) was ‘hammering’ my main hard drive at least once a day for around 20 minutes – making the machine unresponsive – and, since I don’t need it for gaming, I decided to uninstall it.

There was a video somewhere on the web which told me how to uninstall GeForce Experience but I can’t remember where it was or how I found it.

I found this link in my history which might be useful: https://stealthoptional.com/how-to/how-to-get-nvidia-drivers-without-geforce-experience/

[awakenedbyowls]

I also use this machine for gaming though - which is why I would prefer at this stage to just uncheck things I don't want the app to interfere with. Not sure if I need it for gaming..

[GarryP]

Since I no longer have the software installed I can’t have a look to see of there are any options but I think I looked to see if there were any before I just uninstalled it.

For me it was more important to not having my machine ‘grind to a halt’ every now and again than it was to hope that the software was doing something ‘useful’.

If it were me I would uninstall and simply see how things went – it’s always re-installable, even if you need to tweak some stuff to get it working nicely again – but only you can decide what’s best for you.

[awakenedbyowls]

1 minute ago, GarryP said:

Since I no longer have the software installed I can’t have a look to see of there are any options but I think I looked to see if there were any before I just uninstalled it.

And? Did you find any?

[GarryP]

Sorry, no; that’s why I just uninstalled it.

[awakenedbyowls]

Fair enough - I might have to do that. Otherwise find a way to stop it overlaying icons! I mean, do I need three of them as well?

Is there no setting in Affinity to stop this? Surely blocking third party access from other programs is a minimum feature?

I guess it's not running through Affinity though, but over it..

[GarryP]

I didn’t see any overlaying icons while the Experience software was installed.
Maybe that became a ‘feature’ since I uninstalled it, or it wasn’t something which was compatible with my (fairly old) graphics card, or any number of other things.

Are you sure they are from the Experience software?
Do you know what the icons are for or what happens when you press one?

As Walt mentioned above, maybe installing the EXE/MSI version of the Affinity software could solve the problem.

[awakenedbyowls]

Maybe something to do with the version(s) I'm using

[GarryP]

I uninstalled the Experience software in 2019 (or there-abouts) so it’s probably changed a lot since I last had it installed.

[awakenedbyowls]

Unless there is a way to stop this software interfering then it's gone - it just plopped a 4th icon over the layer panel I was working on there so I couldn't see properly!

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

Unless there is a way to stop this software interfering then it's gone - it just plopped a 4th icon over the layer panel I was working on there so I couldn't see properly!

I'm curious how you know that it's GeForce Experience doing it? Especially since it doesn't seem to do that on my system.

 

[awakenedbyowls]

This and the icon is the same as what comes up on games sometimes. It also flashes up that it's GeForce when I open a file

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

This and the icon is the same as what comes up on games sometimes

Yes, that certainly says it's monitoring it. But I never get that icon. (Of course, I don't do much gaming.)

[awakenedbyowls]

Where do I download this other version - I tried creating a desktop but it's didn't make any difference. Anything I can do to get this GeForce crap gone! Why can't it just run in the background with popping up things over the interface? 

I can't find anywhere on the website to download the latest version or the history of versions - where has this page gone?

[awakenedbyowls]

I don't know what the difference between these two versions is - anyway I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and GeForce is still getting in my face so I've taken the decision to get rid of "NVidia GeForce Experience" ! 🤮😠

Spoiler

sorry no spoiler just can't figure out how to get rid of this now it's decided to appear

[awakenedbyowls]

6 hours ago, GarryP said:

I didn’t know what it was for either but I did know that it (nvcontainer.exe ?) was ‘hammering’ my main hard drive at least once a day for around 20 minutes – making the machine unresponsive – and, since I don’t need it for gaming, I decided to uninstall it.

There was a video somewhere on the web which told me how to uninstall GeForce Experience but I can’t remember where it was or how I found it.

I found this link in my history which might be useful: https://stealthoptional.com/how-to/how-to-get-nvidia-drivers-without-geforce-experience/

So I had a look at that page and did a search for the latest drivers and there's a new driver out that isn't installed on my PC - after I checked through Device Manager and searched for new drivers there - it said my drivers are up to date. This latest once is a game ready driver (apparently) so I'm wondering what the point in this GeForce Experience is at all if it hasn't updated my drivers to the latest version???

[RichardMH]

You have told GeForce Experience you want studio drivers?

[awakenedbyowls]

1 hour ago, RichardMH said:

You have told GeForce Experience you want studio drivers?

I never told it to do anything - dunno what you mean