How to roll back Nvidia drivers

New graphics drivers usually mean better performance and stability, but not always. If you’ve had a problem following a recent update, you’ll want to roll back your drivers to make sure your PC is back to working order.

You don’t even have to download any kind of application, although if you really want to erase old/new drivers and replace them with another one, there are third-party driver cleaners that do a great job.

How to Restore Nvidia Drivers with Device Manager

Nvidia’s GeForce Experience can make it easier to update your GPU drivers and reinstall them, but it has no way to roll them back to a previous version. For this we can use the Device Manager of Windows 10 and 11.

Step 1: Use Windows search to search for Device Manager and select the corresponding result.

Step 2: Find the icon called Display Adapters in the list of components and select the arrow next to it or double-click it. It should then show your graphics card or chip in the drop-down list.

Step 3: Right click or long press on the GPU and then select Properties.

Step 4: Select the Driver tab at the top of the new window that opens.

Step 5: Select Roll Back Driver.

Step 6: Choose a reason why you are canceling and select Yes. Then wait for the restore to complete.

Note: Your screen may go black once or twice during the process. Wait about a minute and you should see your driver date and version change to the previous driver you installed.

How to Restore Your Nvidia Drivers Using DDU

If you’re upgrading your graphics cards – especially if you’re moving to a different brand of GPU – or just want to make sure nothing of the old driver is left behind, you should use an app called Display Driver Uninstaller ( DDU).

Step 1: Download DDU from the official website and extract the archive download to a new folder.

Step 2: Optional: The official instructions for DDU suggest that you reboot into safe mode before continuing. Technically you don’t have to, but you probably should. Here’s how to boot into safe mode in Windows 11 and how to boot into safe mode in Windows 10.

Step 3: Run the DDU application. If Windows tries to tell you it’s not safe, run it anyway. If you are worried, run a virus scan on the .exe file first.

Step 4: Close the options menu when it appears. The default settings are fine.

Step 5: Select the drop-down menu on the right that says “-Select device type-” and choose Nvidia.

Step 6: From the top left options, select Clean and restart.

Step 7: Let DDU run to complete the uninstallation (you can follow its log) and when possible, allow or encourage the system to reboot by making the relevant selections on the screen.

Step 8: When Windows restarts, open your favorite web browser and download the Nvidia drivers you want to restore from the official website. Then install them as you would any other driver.

Now that your drivers are updated the way you want, why not check out our guide to the best Nvidia Control Panel settings to optimize your GPU’s performance.

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