Microsoft has introduced an NVMe driver aimed at enhancing SSD performance in Windows Server 2025, and the same improvements can be enjoyed by users of Windows 11. This new software stack is reported to offer significantly better performance, addressing previous limitations that rendered existing drivers inadequate for modern SSD capabilities.
Historically, Windows translated NVMe commands into the older Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol. While SCSI had been surprisingly efficient, modern SSDs require more advanced handling due to the massive parallelization of data access. The transition to the new driver is expected to substantially increase Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) and data throughput, while also lowering CPU load.
For Windows Server 2025, a specific registry key must be activated to deploy the new NVMe driver. Users of Windows 11 must set three particular registry values to take advantage of the new driver. Detailed instructions can be found online, guiding users on how to implement these changes:
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /freg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /freg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /fTo simplify this, users can create a text file with the following content, change its extension from .txt to .reg, and execute it to apply the registry changes:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides]"735209102"=dword:00000001"1853569164"=dword:00000001"156965516"=dword:00000001A backup of the system is highly recommended before proceeding, as unintended side effects may occur. After applying these changes, a system restart is necessary.
Once the driver is activated, users can verify its presence in the Device Manager. Post-transition, the SSD should appear under "Storage media" instead of "Drives". If functioning correctly, the details should indicate the new "nvmedisk.sys" driver.
Initial tests under Windows 11 25H2 with the new driver have shown promising results, with access times for PCIe 4.0 SSDs improving and overall throughput increasing by approximately 10 to 15 percent. Notably, systems using PCIe 3.0 SSDs have also exhibited enhanced performance.
These improvements suggest that this new driver could lead to a more responsive and efficient experience for SSD users across Microsoft platforms, although further testing is required for comprehensive validation.
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