Nvidia - Nview Manager - missing?

Question

I have updated my Nvidia Drivers and found that the NView Desktop Manager is missing. After some searching it seems that it is not included in the latest driver bundle.

Does anyone know where and how I can install the NView Desktop Manager?

Answer 1

For those running Windows 7 in order to officially have Nview you must be running a Quadro card. Now this can be problematic and annoying for people running GeForce cards.

Nvidia's official response read something like this. (note not exact quote)

We (Nvidia) have made the decision to not include Nview in the installation of Drivers for our GeForce cards. This decision was made because mainly businesses use the Nview package and most businesses don't buy GeForce cards they buy Quadro cards.

Nvidia also stated:

The Nview software package had to be completely rebuilt before it could be released for windows 7 users.

The package should work perfectly fine, it's just that they chose to install it only if you have a Quadro card, or know how to bypass Nvidia's installer package. :D

I found this posted on the net in fairly identical layouts on multiple forums. :) No guarantees that this works but it looks okay to me. Will be testing it myself soon:

1. Download the latest Drivers from the nVidia website

2. Download 7-Zip

3. Open the Driver file with 7-Zip and extract the nView.CAB file (onto your desktop for now)

4. Open the nView.cab file with 7-Zip and extract all the files into a folder on your desktop

5. Run the nviewsetup.exe file as normal.

Note: some features are missing from the application, but most of the important features do work.

Answer 2

Sorry for shameless self linking, but I compiled a comprehensive guide on installing NView from latest Quadro drivers (works with GeForce cards and Windows 7): http://httputility.com/article/how-to-run-nview-on-windows-7

Short instructions:

1. Download latest Quadro drivers.
2. Download NViewActivator tool.
3. Let drivers extract.
4. Run NViewActivator from the drivers installer location.
5. Run drivers installer again and it will let you install just NView.

Answer 3

According to NView desktop manager missing?,

nView desktop manager is not available in Windows Vista. It is not possible to download nView desktop manager because it is not supported with Vista and Windows 7.

This change is operating system specific as nView desktop manager cannot work in Windows Vista or Windows 7. The latest operating system does not support nView desktop manager.

Nvidia support team gave a free alternative to nView desktop manager: Display fusion.

Another article Nvidia Nview Deskop Manager (For Nvidia Graphics Card Users) may hopefully apply to your case (if you're using XP):

For those users which have Nvidia Graphics Card, can have multiple options like more deskops, Nview properties,zooming,different effects while dragging and dropping windows and many more. The nView features are by default disable you need to enable them.

Go to Control Panel,open Nvidia Nview Deskop Manager. Click on enable.

Answer 4

It seems that it must be downloaded separate from the drivers now. eg. When I checked for the latest driver version, it did not update the nView that was pre-installed.

Installing:
Here is the link to install (or update) your nView.
Make sure to click on each of the versions listed (currently there are only two) and look for the version of the NVidia driver/card that you have installed on your computer. Notebook versions of the drivers are listed separately.

Updating:
There is no way to check for updates from within the nView Desktop Manager, so you have to click through the links for the downloads they offer and check for compatibility.
Just install the update in its default location. It will install over the old version without overwriting your settings. However some settings may have been added/removed, so give them a once over before exiting.

Setup:
Here is an SU reference I posted on how to setup nView for the first time, if you don't want to go through the PDF documentation for the version you downloaded.