Activation of native NVME driver in Windows Server 2025

This article explains how to enable the new native NVMe functionality under Windows Server 2025.

Microsoft has created a native NVMe driver, “StorNVMe.sys,” as part of the redesign of the Windows Storage Stack. This enables more efficient use of NVMe SSDs.

Prerequisites

• Windows Server 2025
• comulative October 2025 update

Activation of driver

In the Registry editor, a DWORD-value (32-Bit) with the name 1176759950 and the value 1 must be created under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides.

This can be easily created using the following PowerShell command:

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1176759950 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Alternatively, it is also possible to start an MSI program for the group policies, which creates a group policy under: Policies for Local Computer > Computer configuration > Administrative templates> KB5066835 251014_21251 Feature Preview > Windows 11, version 24H2, 25H2.

This must then be enabled in the Local Group Policy Editor. After this, the server must be restarted, so that the changes are active.

Verification of driver

You can then check in Device Manager whether the NVMe SSDs are loaded with the new driver.

• 
  NVMe SSDs before change
• 
  NVMe SSDs standard driver
• 
  NVMe SSDs after change
• 
  NVMe SSDs NVMe driver

References

• Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025: Ushering in a New Era of Storage Performance (techcommunity.microsoft.com)

Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.