How to delete old greyed-out nvidia 3D settings

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BobCharlie

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Sep 2, 2011
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This has bugged me for ages. Usually after an update to current nvidia driver, I end up in the 3D settings for a current game, only to see a game being referenced from over a year ago in the drop down, with ZERO option to delete said game from the 3D settings as there's no option to actually remove it, but figured it was registry related as I did a complete nvidia wipe at one point in between the game being there and now, and didn't feel like messing with it.

After a few minutes skimming older posts, where one guy almost went nuts trying to delete some old game references, from following overly complex online removals (he was actually told to remove everything nvidia related, and then ended up deleting things he shouldn't, etc.) to trying to delete the .bin files myself after seeing them update in real-time after making a save to one of those greyed out old games, it dawned on me. There are remnants of the old game still around that nvidia is detecting.

Started typing (elder scrolls 4 in my case) and saw it referenced C:\Users\xxxxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games (after right-clicking the selection and selecting properties to see the location, as going to the file folder option wasn't working). Went to the location, deleted, and viola! NO MORE GREYED OUT GAME!

I'm sure if I look hard enough and type in EXACTLY what someone else typed, I might get lucky and find someone else that figured this out, but everything I was finding was pointing to older threads where the issue went without being solved, or was telling people to literally delete everything nvidia related to performing a fresh OS install. Also, fwiw, ccleaner has NEVER detected the old broken link to the missing game that was removed at least 3 years ago. Hopefully someone sees this before the older garbage out there and can sleep a little easier.
 

BobCharlie

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Sep 2, 2011
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OK, nvm that. I jumped the gun.

Using regedit, edit-> find-> found a couple traces of oblivion.exe (the greyed out game in my case) and deleted them.

Used DDU, removed nvidia in safe mode, then deleted C:NVIDIA while still in safe mode, and manually looked for any remaining nvidia folders.

Used regedit again, and double checked for "oblivion" and "elder scrolls", then went a step further and selectively removed some leftover nvidia registry files (don't recommend, be careful).

With internet still disconnected, reinstalled the most current nvidia driver which I had saved.

Opened the 3D settings tab and the damned thing is still there. Now I know why that poor guy I saw in an old post was going nuts.
 
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