Spoiler, just because the option is there, doesn't mean you have to use it!
For several days now - or even weeks in the case of older users - users have been reporting a strange "possibility" offered to them by Windows 11. Indeed, some users have noticed that they can now "eject" - to use the exact term employed by Microsoft's operating system - their system's graphics card as if it were a simple USB stick. Notably highlighted by our confreres at Tom's Hardware, this is something of a surprise. Materially speaking, it's hard to see how the graphics card could be removed in this way. Then there's the logical question of how Windows can function once the graphics card has been removed from the system.
Well, to answer this second question, it's quite simple: it can't. So, in absolute terms, we can already strongly advise you against using this option, should you happen to see it appear on your system. No, ejecting your graphics card is not a good idea.
YnosNava on Reddit, via Tom's Hardware
Now we need to understand why such an option might appear. The first thing to know is that it's actually not completely new, and is linked to the hot-plug capability of certain PCI Express components. But why a graphics card? Here, we need to take into account the fact that some configurations may employ several graphics cards and, in particular, an external graphics card, so it may be useful to have an option to remove it without having to reboot the system. However, this only applies in very few cases, and for the vast majority of users, such an option should not be used.
In the absence of any precise communication from Microsoft on this subject, we can consider that in many cases, the appearance of this option is more of a bug that we hope will soon be corrected. Fortunately, even when you make the mistake of "ejecting" your graphics card when your system absolutely needs it, it's not too complicated to reverse. First of all, simply reboot the system - by switching it off and on again in the worst case - and everything will be back to normal. You can also manually remove this option to avoid any confusion. To do this, delete the " nvlddmkm " key from the registry under the " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services " entry. If you're not used to manipulating the registry, we suggest you contact someone with more experience to help you with this task: in this case, it's easy to do the irreparable.
