Windows 11 25H2 nvmedisk.sys driver support?

Greybeard70 · May 8, 2026

Here's a link to MS announcement and what can benefit using the registry change that is shown in the text.
I did it several months ago and the only benefit I have is in Benchmark scores for my drives.

Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025: Ushering in a New Era of Storage Performance | Microsoft Community Hub

We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of Native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025—a leap forward in storage innovation that will redefine what’s possible...

techcommunity.microsoft.com

cheaterslick · May 8, 2026

glasskuter said:
Yeah. it simplifies everything. Just with my own 3 Intel systems they each used a different version of IRST. At times I boot from everything from a Minitool boot disk, a Linux distro, Macrium or Haselo boot disk, or a Windows install disk. I like simple, especially if I am gaining nothing from using IRST.

Yeah, I was changing that in the past because everyone said I'd get better performance. I didn't really notice any difference, though.

As far as boot media goes, yeah if you use boot media it a lot (which I don't), then yes changing it for you makes a difference.

Mark K · May 8, 2026

glasskuter said:
From my own tests as well as tests from other sources I read about, there was not any difference or performance advantage in read/write speeds by using the IRST driver over the MS one if one is not using a RAID setup. Now I don't have to insert storage controller drivers into any kind of boot media (or manually) so that my disks will be seen when I use that boot media. I can also use the same boot media whether I am working with Intel or AMD systems. I have a mixed bag of systems myself plus I help others from time to time. I just simplified my life.

This might be a piece of information that I was not aware about. The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 (AMD CPU) uses a RAID controller by default and the UEFI BIOS is set to RAID. If I am understand this part of what you wrote, if you are using RAID with NVME that you do not need the NVME support driver from Microsoft?

Mark K · May 8, 2026

cheaterslick said:
As far as boot media goes, yeah if you use boot media it a lot (which I don't), then yes changing it for you makes a difference.

I have the RAID drivers for many computers available on the Windows 11 bootable USB driver that I always load up to see the drive(s) to install Windows. Some times I also have to install the network driver that way too.

cheaterslick · May 8, 2026

Mark K said:
This might be a piece of information that I was not aware about. The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 (AMD CPU) uses a RAID controller by default and the UEFI BIOS is set to RAID.

My Dell Pro 14 is like that, too. In fact, I think that's standard with Dells, both AMD and Intel.

A Dell tech advised me awhile back not to change it from RAID due to the possibility that the machine wouldn't boot up. I'm not sure that's entirely true but I left it alone for now.

Mark K said:
I have the RAID drivers for many computers available on the Windows 11 bootable USB driver that I always load up to see the drive(s) to install Windows. Some times I also have to install the network driver that way too.

So you're saying using RAID instead of AHCI makes no difference as far as bootable media is concerned?

Mark K · May 8, 2026

cheaterslick said:
My Dell Pro 14 is like that, too. In fact, I think that's standard with Dells, both AMD and Intel.

Correct.

cheaterslick said:
A Dell tech advised me awhile back not to change it from RAID due to the possibility that the machine wouldn't boot up. I'm not sure that's entirely true but I left it alone for now.

Correct.

If Windows 11 got installed using RAID, the driver is either pre-installed or manually installed. Changing the AHCI may cause Windows 11 not to boot up. I have seen some situations where Windows 11 does boot up when switched from RAID to AHCI, but you have to do a lot of driver updating to make it boot correctly. Normally, Windows 11 shows a BSOD error.

cheaterslick said:
So you're saying using RAID instead of AHCI makes no difference as far as bootable media is concerned?

What I see often is on Dell, HP, Samsung, and others that I have to install the RAID driver for the Windows 11 installation media to see the drive. AHCI mode does not need a driver.

Here is an excerpt from one of the RAID drivers I common use on these laptops:

Code:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9A0B.DeviceDesc = "Intel RST VMD Controller 9A0B"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_09AB.DeviceDesc = "Intel RST VMD Managed Controller 09AB"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_467F.DeviceDesc = "Intel RST VMD Controller 467F"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A77F.DeviceDesc = "Intel RST VMD Controller A77F"

cheaterslick · May 8, 2026

Mark K said:
If Windows 11 got installed using RAID, the driver is either pre-installed or manually installed. Changing the AHCI may cause Windows 11 not to boot up. I have seen some situations where Windows 11 does boot up when switched from RAID to AHCI, but you have to do a lot of driver updating to make it boot correctly. Normally, Windows 11 shows a BSOD error.

Yeah, at this point in time, I don't think it's worth the trouble to change it. Again, the only reason I would consider it is for the performance gain and if that ain't there, then that ain't there.

Mark K said:
What I see often is on Dell, HP, Samsung, and others that I have to install the RAID driver for the Windows 11 installation media to see the drive. AHCI mode does not need a driver.

Do you consider that a disadvantage?

Mark K · May 8, 2026

cheaterslick said:
Yeah, at this point in time, I don't think it's worth the trouble to change it. Again, the only reason I would consider it is for the performance gain and if that ain't there, then that ain't there.

Do you consider that a disadvantage?

RAID outperforms AHCI all the time. If someone has their computer set to using AHCI and RAID is available, I will install Windows using RAID.

glasskuter · May 8, 2026

cheaterslick said:
So you're saying using RAID instead of AHCI makes no difference as far as bootable media is concerned?

Mark K said:
RAID outperforms AHCI all the time.

Only if one is using RAID 0 so respectfully, I will disagree with that assessment.. Most people do not use a raid setup. They either have a single nvme drive or multiple nvmes in a non-raid environment (ie set up as secondary drives). Benchmarking tests have proven many times over that there is no benefit to run set up as RAID over AHCI in such cases. The web (as well as my own extensive benchmarking tests) validates my claim.

cheaterslick said:
A Dell tech advised me awhile back not to change it from RAID due to the possibility that the machine wouldn't boot up

Only because just making the change in bios will definitely result in a BSOD. There is a spcial procedure done in safe mode to safely switch from Raid to Ahci.

Mark K · May 8, 2026

glasskuter said:
Only if one is using RAID 0 so respectfully, I will disagree with that assessment.. Most people do not use a raid setup. They either have a single nvme drive or multiple nvmes in a non-raid environment (ie set up as secondary drives). Benchmarking tests have proven many times over that there is no benefit to run set up as RAID over AHCI in such cases. The web (as well as my own extensive benchmarking tests) validates my claim.

Years ago I remember using RAID setting, either when it was already set to RAID or I changed it to RAID, with installing the Intel RST driver because of Optane NVME drives. I know back in early or mid 2020, Intel obseleted the Intel RST technology including those horrible Optane NVME/SSD drives. Dell has continued to use RAID by default setup on many of their computers still today. I guess I have an old technology habit of making sure RAID is on in the UEFI BIOS.

I decided to Google about the AHCI/RAID differences to see if anything has changed from the years past. Years ago RAID did provide a benefit, but after Intel RST/Optane technology disappeared (glad Optane went away), seems AHCI is better over RAID in Windows 11.

This explain why when I enabled the NVME registry entries to Windows 11 I had such bad performance. Seems like that registry update is for those system using AHCI with NVME drives.

ref: Pros/Cons: AHCI vs. Raid On (XPS13 9300 NVMe) [details here]
ref: AHCI vs RAID On.Which is better for a laptop with only two SSD?

cheaterslick · May 8, 2026

Mark K said:
I decided to Google about the AHCI/RAID differences to see if anything has changed from the years past. Years ago RAID did provide a benefit, but after Intel RST/Optane technology disappeared (glad Optane went away), seems AHCI is better over RAID in Windows 11.

glasskuter said:
Benchmarking tests have proven many times over that there is no benefit to run set up as RAID over AHCI in such cases. The web (as well as my own extensive benchmarking tests) validates my claim.

Again, I noticed no difference with Windows 10 that's currently using a NVMe drive. Even so, I've left it in AHCI mode and haven't reverted back since I don't use a RAID setup. It's been quite a few years since I last did it.

Still, if anybody has a link to any good current instructions on how to do this with Windows 11 while avoiding a boot failure, I might consider changing it.

glasskuter · May 9, 2026

@cheaterslick I see you have a Surface. If that is the device in question, I'm glad I looked. I've never even seen one but from what I've read dealing with one is totally different than with OEM laptops. So I asked copilot "On a Surface Pro can I change from Raid to Ahci?" Well , lo and behold, look at the answer I got.

Short answer: No — not on a Surface Pro. And the longer explanation is important, because the Surface line is very different from a normal laptop or desktop.

All Surface Pro models (from the Pro 4 onward) use:

A custom UEFI firmware with no SATA mode options
NVMe storage directly on the motherboard
A storage controller path that does not expose RAID, AHCI, or IDE modes at all

On a Dell/HP/Lenovo, you’d see BIOS options like:

RAID / Intel RST
AHCI
IDE

…but on a Surface Pro, those menus do not exist. Microsoft locks the storage mode to the only configuration the hardware supports.

So even though Windows may show Intel RST–related components (like iaStorVD.sys or iaStorAC.sys), the Surface is not actually running in RAID mode, and there is no AHCI mode to switch to.

Those tricks only apply to systems where the BIOS actually supports AHCI.On a Surface Pro, forcing AHCI:

Does nothing
Or causes Windows to fail to boot
Or breaks BitLocker / Secure Boot
Or forces a full recovery

Microsoft bundles certain Intel storage components for compatibility, even on systems that don’t use them. Surface devices rely on:

Microsoft NVMe driver (stornvme.sys)
Surface Storage Firmware
Surface UEFI

Intel RST is not active and not controlling the disk.

cheaterslick · May 9, 2026

@glasskuter - Thanks for the explanation.

Yeah, I kinda figured I couldn't do anything with the Surface Pro and thanks to you, now I know why. I don't really mess with it very much and use it more for work related things, which so far it hasn't interfered with, except for the nagging using Edge instead of Firefox. There's very minimal 3rd party software on it.

I was talking more about the Dell Pro 14 and like I said, I might change that to AHCI if I had more information. Something more specific to Dells since they all seem to come with RAID by default.

TairikuOkami · May 9, 2026

Mark K said:
Has anyone actually enabled this features to see if it exists and actually improves performance?

It depends on your hardware, BIOS, chipset drivers, test before and after to confirm. It boosted mine slightly, slowed down some.

Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025

Windows Server News and Best Practices: Native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025 is a leap forward in storage innovation that will redefine what’s possible for your most demanding workloads. Enable Native NVMe today using a registry key after applying October’s latest cumulative update for...

www.elevenforum.com

Code:

reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\nvmedisk" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "Service" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\nvmedisk" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "Service" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v "156965516" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v "735209102" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v "1409234060" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v "1853569164" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides" /v "3244671118" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Mark K · May 9, 2026

glasskuter said:
Short answer: No — not on a Surface Pro. And the longer explanation is important, because the Surface line is very different from a normal laptop or desktop.

All Surface Pro models (from the Pro 4 onward) use:

A custom UEFI firmware with no SATA mode options

NVMe storage directly on the motherboard

A storage controller path that does not expose RAID, AHCI, or IDE modes at all

On a Dell/HP/Lenovo, you’d see BIOS options like:

RAID / Intel RST

AHCI

IDE

…but on a Surface Pro, those menus do not exist. Microsoft locks the storage mode to the only configuration the hardware supports.

On the Dell Inspiron 3520 (Intel i5 11th Gen) and Dell Vostro 3530 (Intel i5 13th Gen) laptops there was an option to switch between RAID and AHCI modes.

The Dell 16 Plus DB16255 (AMD Ryzen AI 7 350) laptop does not have any storage modes. Based on what I read about Copilot+ laptops, there is just one mode: NVME. Seems strange, but I never noticed until now.

Code:

PS C:\> Get-PhysicalDisk | Select-Object FriendlyName, BusType, MediaType

FriendlyName      BusType MediaType
------------      ------- ---------
EG6 KIOXIA 1024GB NVMe    SSD

glasskuter · May 9, 2026

cheaterslick said:
I was talking more about the Dell Pro 14 and like I said, I might change that to AHCI if I had more information

@Mark K kinda reinforced what I was thinking. Some new devices (like the surface)do not have AHCI as an option in bios so check your Dell to see if it does. If it does, then the below procedure should work.

except for the nagging using Edge instead of Firefox.
This should work to take care of that. It did for me.

Disable Microsoft Edge asking to be Default Browser in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to disable the Microsoft Edge prompt asking to be the default browser for your account or all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The Microsoft Edge web browser is based on Chromium and was released on January 15, 2020. It is compatible with all supported...

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How to Switch from Raid (or VMD) to AHCI
The simple condensed version of how I did this is here SUPERUSER 3rd answer down.
But if you're interested in my own notes and cautions, see below. Overkill...maybe. But I took every precaution I could. Better safe than sorry, I say.

Cautions:
1, Always create a system image first.
2 NEVER do this if you have RAID configurated drives or Intel Optane.
3. I would also disable bitlocker or drive encryption before doing this. At very least have BL key handy.
4. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR SIGN-IN OPTIONS SET TO ACCEPT A PASSWORD to boot into safe mode. It will not accept a PIN. A workaround for this is to enable hidden administrator account.

1. from command prompt as admin type bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
(alternate method - use msconfig to boot to safe mode)

2. Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup

3. Change the SATA Operation mode from RAID to AHCI.

4. Save changes and exit bios setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.

5. In safe mode remove any Intel Rapid Storage application.

6. From command prompt as admin type bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
(alternate method - use msconfig to boot to normal mode)

7. Restart once more and Windows should start in normal mode using standard Microsoft NVME Express Controller Driver.

STUFF I LEARNED
Note 1: it's OK to stop here but the IRST drivers remain in your driver store.
I left the drivers in my driver store for quite a while but eventually removed them using DriverStoreExplorer (under storage controller drivers)in safe mode. Any/all of these are part of IRST dependent of the version of IRST for your system. Mine were the last 2.. (iaStor.sys, iaStorA.sys, iaStorF.sys, iaStorS.sys, iastorv.sys, iaStorAVC.sys, iaStorV.sys, iaStorAC.sys, iaStorAfs.sys)So basically any driver starting with iaStor

Note 2: To this day on my newest machine from 2020, every time I use Dell Command Update to update my drivers, it offers me IRST drivers. I decline them. Maybe I missed removing an unused driver or maybe it's because DCU scans my drivers against what Dell shows came from the factory.

Note 3: FYI Nirsoft has a great portable utility called DriverView. You can use DriverView to display a list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system. (view>mark non MS drivers) DriverView: Loaded Windows Drivers List

Mark K · May 9, 2026

glasskuter said:
STUFF I LEARNED
Note 1: it's OK to stop here but the IRST drivers remain in your driver store.
I left the drivers in my driver store for quite a while but eventually removed them using DriverStoreExplorer (under storage controller drivers)in safe mode.

I was curious if any old Intel RST drivers exists in Windows 11. None found on my system. I did find the AMD NVME drivers:

glasskuter said:
Note 2: To this day on my newest machine from 2020, every time I use Dell Command Update to update my drivers, it offers me IRST drivers. I decline them. Maybe I missed removing an unused driver or maybe it's because DCU scans my drivers against what Dell shows came from the factory.

To my knowledge, if you do not use an Optane SSD drive, or the system board requires the use of Intel RST, then there is no need to install these drivers. A long time ago the Optane SSD drives did not perform very well for me, I replaced it and removed the Intel RST drivers back then. Over the years I reallly haven't paid much attention to this old technology.

glasskuter said:
Note 3: FYI Nirsoft has a great portable utility called DriverView. You can use DriverView to display a list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system. (view>mark non MS drivers) DriverView: Loaded Windows Drivers List

I used Driver Store Explorer (RAPR) on Github.

KevTech · May 9, 2026

Mark K said:
I did find the AMD NVME drivers

Those are actually the AMD Provisioning Packages Driver for Processor and NVMe Power Management.

It is for power management of the processor and NVMe.

cheaterslick · May 10, 2026

glasskuter said:
2. NEVER do this if you have RAID configurated drives or Intel Optane.

What is Intel Optane and why would it interfere with it? And how would I check to see if I do or not?

glasskuter said:
3. I would also disable bitlocker or drive encryption before doing this. At very least have BL key handy.

It's always been disabled and I set up the machine using a local account.

glasskuter said:
4. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR SIGN-IN OPTIONS SET TO ACCEPT A PASSWORD to boot into safe mode. It will not accept a PIN. A workaround for this is to enable hidden administrator account.

I do use a pin to log in to my local account from the splash screen booting up. Should I need to enable hidden administrator account, how do I do so?

On another machine that I have access to, I do use a password to log into a local account when the boot-up splash screen appears so that"s the password I use?

glasskuter said:
5. In safe mode remove any Intel Rapid Storage application.

Where would that be located?

~

And thanks for any help!

glasskuter · May 10, 2026

#2 What is Intel Optane and why would it interfere with it? And how would I check to see if I do or not?
If you have an optane Drive it should be indicated as optane in device manager>disk drives. An optane drive WILL NOT work without Intel IRST driver

An Optane SSD is a storage drive made with Intel Optane technology instead of normal NAND flash memory used in regular SSDs. It was a
special type of ultra‑fast cache memory that Intel used to speed up systems with slow storage (ie used in conjunction with secondary HDDs and other SSDs.) It was a brilliant idea from Intel that was never widely accepted. To understand optane completely is above my paygrade. I just know optane drives were a bitch to deal with and Optane became EOL in 2024.. My Dell came with an optane drive in 2021 and it was replaced with a regular m.2 as soon as I got it.

#4. I do use a pin to log in to my local account from the splash screen booting up. You can temporarily enable password login to your account by going to settings>accounts>signin options>password
This does not negate your pin signin option. It just adds password as one of your sign options.

Should I need to enable hidden administrator account, how do I do so? There's no need to enable it if you add password as a means to login to your account. When you enable it, you see a second user on your login screen. It is meant to be used for testing, troubleshooting ,or special purposes . When finished, from YOUR user account ALWAYS disable this hidden administrator account.. It is not meant to be used as a "daily driver" account.

Enable or Disable Built-in Administrator Account in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the built-in Administrator account in Windows 11. Windows 11 includes a hidden built-in Administrator account that serves as the local system administrator with elevated rights by default without needing Run as administrator or UAC (User...

www.elevenforum.com

#5 Intel Rapid Storage application. Where would that be located? Settings>Apps>Installed apps>find the app in the list then 3 dots (or using Revo Uninstaller)

Windows 11 25H2 nvmedisk.sys driver support?

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