How to Restore the Missing NVIDIA Tray Icon

The NVIDIA icon in your System Tray is the fast track to making changes and tweaking settings. It’s pretty convenient, so if it’s suddenly missing following an update or restart, you’re no doubt looking for answers and fixes. Not to worry: in this article, we’ll be helping you solve a missing NVIDIA tray icon.

Troubleshooters to Bring Back a Missing NVIDIA Tray Icon

Let’s get straight into it. Below, we’ve got a few fixes to help you sort out an NVIDIA tray icon disappearing:

Re-enable via the Control Panel

Just because you can’t access the NVIDIA Control Panel through the system tray doesn’t mean you can’t access it. Your first step should be to try to re-enable the system tray icon. Here’s how:

Step 1. Open the NVIDIA Control Panel by typing it in the search bar. Alternatively, right-click your Desktop and select “Show more options” before choosing NVIDIA.

Step 2. In the Control Panel, click “Desktop” in the Top Menu.

Step 3. Ensure “Show Notification Tray Icon” is checked. If it is already checked and the icon is still missing, you’ll have to try another solution.

Restart the Display Container Service

NVIDIA has quite a few services running on your PC at any given time. For any number of reasons, they can stop working properly and cause problems like the tray icon going missing. A quick restart can help. Here’s how:

Step 1. Open the Run Dialog (Win + R) and type “services.msc” before hitting “Enter.”

Step 2. In “Services,” navigate down to “NVIDIA Display Container LS” and check that it’s running under “Status.”

Step 3. Click “Stop” to halt the service and then either “Start” or “Restart” to get it running again.

Step 4. In addition, double-click the service and set the “Startup type” to “Automatic” to ensure it always starts.

Restart Windows Explorer

An erratic Windows Explorer, especially after it’s been running for too long, can also start acting up. A quick restart can solve things:

Step 1. Press (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) to bring up Task Manager.

Step 2. Find and select the “Windows Explorer” process in the “Processes” tab and select “Restart task” from the top menu.

Step 3. Explorer will restart. Check to see if the icon is back. Restart your PC if it’s still missing.

Enforce via the Registry

If you’re feeling up to the challenge of fixing the NVIDIA System Tray Icon missing, Windows 11 also has the Registry to edit. Just be careful, as making any changes you’re unsure of can cause system instability. Here’s what to do:

Step 1. Open the Run dialog (Win + R) and type “regedit” before hitting (Ctrl + Shift + Enter) to run as Admin.

Step 2. In the Registry, navigate to the following location in your address bar: “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\nvlddmkm\NvControlPanel2”

Step 3. In this folder, if the “ShowInSedona” and “StartOnLogin” values are present, ensure that both are set to 1. You can do this by double-clicking each value and changing the number before clicking OK.

Step 4. Restart your machine and see if the icon is back.