how to get rid of popup about killernetworkmanagerlauncher link

[rosp]

Every session after a while a little winow pops up telling me to search microsoft store fort an app to open the "killernetworkmanagerlauncher link"

I've tried installing and uninstalling the killer network stuff (which seems rather useless BTW) but this annoying popup remains. How do I get rid of it? Nothing in task manager autostart, no aps with killer in name installed any more, no services to be found, yet somehow this annoying thing keeps popping up...

This is on an Alienware desktop running Windows 11. Killer E3100G 2.5Gb

[Hawk521]

I have been experiencing this same Popup message for about a week.

My Acer Nitro 17-41 has a Killer Ethernet adapter (apparently) but since I use WIFI exclusively I don't think I even need the Killer software.  Have tried to remove it and even reinstalled it totally using the Intel Drivers Download, but nothing seems to eliminate this dang Popup pointing me to the Microsoft Application downloads.  Once there, it doesn't seem to know what I'm talking about when I type in "Killer Network Manager" (with or without the blanks).

This isn't a show stopper problem, but is getting annoying.

[DerekL]

I have also been having the same problems. I have uninstalled Killer Network and still get the popup.  Also uninstalled Killer Performance Suite to no avail. It's driving me mad!!!
Dell XPS1510, Windows11, Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650s 160MHz Wireless Network Adapter (201D2W)

[DerekL]

After several attempts, where I was getting a notification that a higher level was already installed on my laptop, I downloaded and reinstalled the Intel Killer Performance suite from the Intel website:

https://www.intel.fr/content/www/fr/fr/download/19779/intel-killer-performance-suite.html

This now seems to have rectified the problem.

[CR_sistemi]

Same identical problem on Nitro 5 - Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i 160MHz Wireless Network Adapter (201NGW). I believe after the last update, 2025-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based systems (KB5058502) installed on June 3, 2025, shortly before or shortly after the update from Intel Drive & Support Assistant - Intel® Killer™ Performance Suite Installation successful 2025-06-03 1:43 PM Description: This download record installs Wi-Fi, Ethernet drivers, and Killer Software for the Intel® Killer™ products. Version: 40.25.509.1465 Release date: May 26, 2025; which, however, had previously failed twice. I still haven't found a solution.

[Hawk521]

"Version: 40.25.509.1465 Release date: May 26, 2025; which, however, had previously failed twice. "

This is precisely the situation I have encountered.  The "Intel Driver & Support Assistant" attempted and failed twice to install this, but was successful on its third attempt.  Ever since I've been seeing this stupid popup directing me to Microsoft downloads - which is not helpful in any way. 

Come on Killer - you made this mess - FIX IT!

[CR_sistemi]

I finally solved this popup problem by installing the 'Killer Intelligence Center' app from apps.microsoft.com.

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pcwjks4jsn1?hl=en-US&gl=US

The link states that Killer Intelligence Center requires the Killer drivers and services to be installed.

I first installed Intel Killer Performance Suite and Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD.

After installing the app I restarted the system and I was able to verify that the popup no longer appears because it has found the program that can launch it. It may happen, the first time, that the popup already appears with the proposed application name.

Obviously it is not the ideal solution for those who only use Intel® Driver & Support Assistant to keep drivers updated, but for now it goes like this. In several system registry keys, I noticed that the 'calls' to killernetworkmanagerlauncher.exe are not deleted when uninstalling the Killer utilities (which also uninstall the Killer Intelligence Center app).

It is probably possible to clean the registry, but for now I prefer to wait for the next updates and proceed with this solution.

I hope I have not violated some chat rules by inserting a direct link to install the app. But it seems impossible to create filters to search for this app in the Store..

[rosp]

Still hoping for an official reply to this as this is called a support forum but so far looks like self help only. I've noticed a number of registry entries but am reluctant to manually prune them. I'd greatly prefer not having to install another app to fix this as, in my experience, the Killer software doesn't exactly help improve performance and Microsoft store versions of apps tend to be worse. It's peculiar it asks for a MSS app specifically.

[gjdavis60]

Also experiencing this problem. The Intel Driver & Support Assistant pushed the latest Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD to my machine. At the end of the installation it asked if I wanted to install the Killer Intelligence Center from the MS Store, which I selected and the app was installed.

Some time later, the Intel Driver & Support Assistant indicated that there was another Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD update available, which I selected for download and installation. However, when the installation package downloaded and ran, the only option it offered was to uninstall the Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD from my machine, which I allowed it to do. I noticed that the Killer Intelligence Center App no longer recognized any Killer drivers/devices on my machine so I uninstalled it. Upon restarting, the prompt in the OP began appearing on my machine. That's where things currently stand. My registry is full of references to "killernetworkmanagerlauncher" and I am hesitant to attempt to remove them at this time.

It also appears that the Killer Intelligence Center app is no longer available in the Microsoft Store.

Dell XPS 3970, Windows 11, Killer E2400 Ethernet Adapter

[TrueMe]

++Me Too++

I tried a couple of years past to install the Killer Performance Suite like a good Intel subject on my Dell XPS desktop. They have the name right... it does kill performance. If you google the issue, there are tons of people having problems after installing and then more problems trying to uninstall. After install my download speed dropped to 5 Mb. Took me days to get it uninstalled and back to the original Dell Intel drivers which are also Killer but not the suite whatever difference that is, other than older.

I then had to uninstalled the Intel Driver & Support Assistant because it keeps saying there are newer drivers.

After a couple of years I thought I'd try again because I like to be on the latest. Here I am back in Performance Killer hell again.

It is so bad someone actually wrote a program to help uninstall it and add a shim to make driver update think it has the latest. I do not know if this works or not: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/killer_software_uninstaller.html

As the title of one post put it, "Wow, why does Killer Performance Suite even exist? I removed it and about doubled my speed."

Well I got the older drivers back but now seeing that popup like everyone on this thread.

Intel... you can do so much better. How does something like this happen and keep happening when you are "Intel!"

[Richard49]

For me this same issue started when I installed the "KillerPerformanceSuite_40.25.509.1465_Win10-11x64.exe" on 6/3/2025 after having extremely poor performance with Wi-Fi.  (Fortunately the Realtek USB GbE performance is excellent and stable.)

The "new" version of Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD did not improve Wi-Fi performance!  Intel's software uninstall process is not clean and leaves a lot of clutter behind, see this folder location:

C:\ProgramData\Dell\drivers\ba807983-9858-41b1-b31f-bf2cb0d8c71c\Production\Windows10-x64\0\Drivers\KillerNetworkComponent. 

Also the Registry has 4 entries that reference "killernetworkmanagerlauncher".

After the "Killer Performance Driver Suite UWD" was uninstalled, Wi-Fi improved with driver version 23.140.0.3 (the old driver version was 23.110.0.5).

Intel needs to do a better job with the uninstall process.

Issues are on an Alienware x15 R2 laptop with Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 (6E* Pre-certified) AX1675 802.11ax 2x2.

[TrueMe]

After fighting this thing for days. I did use the uninstall I listed above and I got back to normal speed after a round of trying to find drivers that would work for full speed. However the popup thing I could never resolve.

So I dove back in with the full suite: KillerPerformanceSuite_40.25.509.1465_Win10-11x64

And just like always, it killed my download speed - uploaded was normal.

It did get rid of the pop-up.

I disabled all the power setting on the NIC. And I found that disabling the Prioritization Engine in Performance Suite (see: all settings) helped get me close on download speed.

It still isn't full speed and I still can't believe there are no simple drivers to work with..  This is embarrassing for an outfit like Intel! Seriously considering just buying a PCI Offbrand NIC card.

[TrueMe]

How I freed myself from Intel Performance Killer Suite:

The only way I could get the popup to not happen was to install the latest KillerPerformanceSuite (which I don’t want). I even removed all Killer software and disabled all NICs. It still happened. If you have the Performance Killer Suite installed, run Windows Services and look at all the “Killer” services running, even if all you want is a NIC driver. This is crazy!

How I finally Killed the Under-performance Suite (it worked for me but there are registry changes so follow AT YOUR OWN RISK):

• I purchased a Realtek 2.5Gb NIC on Amazon (for $19).
• I uninstalled anything Killer.
• I ran the Killer Software Uninstaller: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/killer_software_uninstaller.html
• In Device Manager I uninstalled my NIC, selecting the Remove the drivers option.
• I ran Windows Disk Cleanup and selected to delete drivers.
• I reboot to BIOS and disabled my onboard NIC.
• I installed the new NIC card.
• I rebooted and used Windows Services to validate no Killer services were present.
• I installed the easy-to-install new Realtek NIC drivers, which are actually just drivers!!!
• I started PowerShell as Admin and ran killer-killer.ps1 https://gist.github.com/morganwdavis/985ae6a3a63890bb6b038c6e791a3ad5
• Reading the message output I did have to manually remove a directory
• I rebooted again.
• I got Nirsoft RegScanner: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html
• I searched all locations for “killernetworkmanagerlauncher”
• I deleted every location I found
• In some cases, I had to go to the registry, and take ownership to delete the entry or hive.
• Rebooted again, speed is back and popup is gone!

I still can’t believe Intel bought Rivet Networks and then forced this mess on everyone regardless if you needed Gaming support or not. Just giving us NIC drivers alone is not an option as far as I can tell. And then the crappy software that doesn’t uninstall is an insult to users. Not to mention you can search the web for the tons of users complaining the drivers Kill Performance – which they do!

[rosp]

It's sad but still no word from Intel and no update to fix this mess (just installed the latest and did absolutely nothing for this). So thanks, Intel, for helping me make up my mind to switch back to AMD. You guys are really great at what you are doing, if what you are doing is make people buy other brands. Like when I wanted to get your video card and luckily couldn't get one as you totally fumbled the release and no one had any for sale.

[Dennis08]

Hi All,

If you want the easy solution to fix this problem see my post in the related topic below. Hope it helps you all. It's the ONLY solution that worked and the good news is, no apps need to be installed and no trawling through the registry. Enjoy your redeemed computers without this abomination!

https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/KillerManagerLauncher-Link-popup-removal/m-p/1708582/highlight/true#M60996