Microsoft has recently added native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025. I know what you must be thinking—about time, right? Better late than never, I suppose.
While Microsoft is currently focused on Windows Server 2025, Windows 11 users have found a way to try out these improvements for themselves. Here’s how it works, how to try it out, and whether you even should try it in the first place.
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Microsoft adds native NVMe to Windows—what does that change?
Some might say this change is long overdue.
Credit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
Microsoft has supported NVMe for years, both in consumer PCs and in servers, but it was more of a workaround than native support.
Even though NVMe has been out for over a decade, Windows still classifies these newer, drastically faster storage devices the same way as older drives. As Microsoft itself states in its blog post, Windows treats NVMe as SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), and that can add a lot of extra latency to an otherwise fast drive.
With native NVMe, Windows can finally stop translating NVMe requests into SCSI and can process these requests directly. This was previously done with the StorNVMe.sys driver, which provided support for translating NVMe into SCSI.
Microsoft itself says that this change could have a major impact on NVMe workloads. Without needing to convert NVMe into SCSI commands, Windows Server cuts back on overhead and latency. Microsoft touts that the I/O processing workflow benefits greatly from this redesign, achieving “extreme performance.”
By Microsoft’s own calculations, SCSI on NVMe drives dramatically limits the I/O processing the drive can perform. SCSI was built for older drives, including HDDs and SATA SSDs, and it can only run on a single-queue model with up to 32 commands. Meanwhile, NVMe can support up to 64,000 queues, and each of those queues can handle up to 64,000 commands all at the same time. This is one of the reasons why SATA SSDs are too old for modern systems, but it also highlights just how outdated the SCSI to NVMe workflow has become.
Savvy Windows 11 users have already found ways to try native NVMe
Microsoft is sticking to Server 2025, but users are not.
Credit: u/Cheetah2kkk/Reddit
After Microsoft’s initial announcements, many eager Windows 11 users rushed to try and see if they could get native NVMe to work in the consumer version of the OS. And, of course, they managed to do so—with some caveats.
One Reddit user, Cheetah2kkk, tried it on their MSI Claw 8AI+ gaming handheld, equipped with a 4TB Crucial T705 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD. PurePlayerPC on X (Twitter) also tried it and shared their findings. There’s also a whole thread of people exchanging thoughts on native NVMe on the Guru3D forums, so it looks like there’s a decent number of people trying this out for themselves.
The common factor here is Windows 11 25H2 and registry modifications.
Many users managed to get this to work, and those who don’t run into any problems almost universally report performance gains. I haven’t been able to replicate it on my end, unfortunately, but the sample size of users who have successfully tried it is growing.
Native NVMe serves up performance gains across the board
Not just in Windows Server 2025.
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft touts big performance gains with native NVMe, and it serves up benchmarks to prove it.
A DiskSpd.exe test, carried out on 4K random read workloads on NTFS volumes, reveals that WS2025 systems deliver an up to 80% boost in IOPS with 45% fewer CPU cycles per I/O. Microsoft ran this test on a system with an Intel Dual Socket CPU (208 cores, 128GB RAM), and a Solidigm 3.5TB NVMe device.
To recreate this exact test, run the following command:
diskspd.exe -b4k -r -Su –t8 -L -o32 -W10 -d30
The benefits achieved by those hacking their way to run this on Windows 11 vary, but we’re seeing as much as an 85% improvement in random write speeds on the MSI Claw 8AI+, accompanied by a 12% uplift in random read speeds. Meanwhile, PurePlayerPC reported a 13% boost in the AS SSD benchmark, as well as improvements in random write speeds reaching up to 22%. Not as impressive, but still great.
How to try out native NVMe
Try it at your own risk.
Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Microsoft’s own advice on Windows Server 2025 is to first check whether your NVMe SSDs currently use the Windows NVMe driver, as SSDs running on a vendor-specific driver will not see any difference. If you do, your next step is to apply the 2510-B Latest Cumulative Update, and then add the registry key via PowerShell:
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1176759950 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Microsoft doesn’t have an official way for Windows 11 25H2 users to try out native NVMe. While users have found ways to make it work on consumer-level Windows, it’s not supposed to work yet, and there’s no word from Microsoft as to when or if it will—so any possible issues may never be addressed.
With that said, if you want to try it, proceed at your own risk.
Some users report problems with booting the drive or using it after making these changes. Backup everything first, or try it on a virtual machine to test it in a safe environment.
You’ll need Windows 11 25H2. After that, users recommend various registry tweaks that enable native NVMe on consumer PCs.
Each source of information provides slightly different approaches, so I recommend checking out the Reddit thread, X post, and forum post.
Should you try this out for yourself? Only if you don’t mind possibly breaking something or know how to restore your drive to a previous state if you’re not happy with these registry changes.
Even if the scope is limited right now, it’s great to see that Microsoft seems to have found a way to speed up NVMe. Let’s hope that we get an official release on Windows 11 in the near future.
