Any suggestions of the best and cleanest way to install an older nVidia driver?  

I normally use the clean install method from within the nVidia installers ("personalized" option, on which you can also select the portions to install, i.e., the GeForce Experience, which by the way I never install). If everything works fine, you don't need to use the DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), a very useful application to make sure there are no remains from previously installed drivers. For the DDU to be effective, you'll need to use it to the letter, i.e., let the application to reboot your windows OS in safe mode, clean the registry and then proceed to install the new driver. This method is the best one to guarantee a clean driver installation and will keep you out of trouble, but it's far more elaborated than the simpler nVidia "clean" installation. As I said. I only use DDU when I suspect a driver is causing problems, otherwise I use the nVidia "clean" install method.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Ed

 

As long as your not on windows 10 creators update only the latest drivers support this that's why some users had a problem after the update.

 

I haven't used any driver cleaners or anything like that, ever.

Some time ago, I would uninstall from add/remove programs and then install new driver, but these days, because the installer is so much more sophisticated, it's not actually necessary.

I go for custom install, so I can eliminate GeForce Experience (which I don't like) then simply allow the installer to do it's job.

The only time you can really justify any third party driver cleaner is if you've had some kind of an issue you're trying to troubleshoot. Otherwise the Nvidia installer is all that's required.