I use this version of the driver (178.24) and have had no problems with the control panel. Try rolling back the driver until you are back to the one from the initial Vista installation and then see if that makes any difference when you reinstall it.
4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB)
Graphics card(s)
MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
Sound Card
Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898)
Monitor(s) Displays
ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen
Screen Resolution
1440x900
Hard Drives
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0)
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2
Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II
Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0
WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0
HI could you please help me to correct this issue. when I try to access nvidia control panel I get the stopped working error, I keep uninstalling the program and reinstalling but it isn't working? how can I uninstall everything of nvidia and start again, including the display drivers? if I uninstall the display drivers I get a blank screen. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP