Why is nvsvc32.exe running on my system?

I do take a close look at the processes that are running on my system from time to time to make sure that no malicious process snug in. Usually, I use the Windows Task Manager for that as it is more than sufficient to get a quick overview of all running processes.

You can start the Task Manager with a tap on the Ctrl-Shift-Esc key on your keyboard. Here you may need to click on the "show processes from all users" button first to display all running processes.

Sometimes I find a new process that I never saw before in the task manager and use the Internet to find out more information about it.

The nvsvc32.exe process was one of those that I did not recognize before and I was wondering what it was doing in there. I suspected it had something to do with my NVIDIA graphics adapter and a quick search told me it was.

Nvsvc32.exe is the NVIDIA Driver Helper Service which is a Windows service that is started automatically.

A way to get rid of this process is to disable the service in Windows XP. Use the command line to start services.msc and disable the service NVIDIA Driver Helper Service. It is safe to disable the service but if you encounter any problems afterwards you can simply  activate it again.

Everything is still working properly on my system. I can use the NVDIA card configuration and all applications and games do work as before.

Some reports on the Internet suggested that this could indeed speed up shutdown and startup time. Some others reported problems with temperature reporting after disabling the service.

Update: Please note that NVIDIA is making use of different drivers and processes if you have installed a newer version of the NVIDIA Graphics Driver on your system.

You can check out our guide on installing NVIDIA drivers properly here. At the time of writing, nvsvc32.exe is not installed anymore as part of Nvidia's driver package.

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