Windows 11 isn’t as perfect as Microsoft wants you to believe. Nearly five years since its launch, Windows 11 still feels like a work in progress, and Microsoft has been hard at work fixing bugs, random glitches, and bringing its latest OS into the modern era. While some of its attempts have succeeded, Microsoft’s AI obsession is scaring me.
Regardless, Microsoft’s new announcement seems to be a sign of good news. Windows Server 2025 now has native NVMe support, significantly speeding up data transfers. The same feature is also hiding in Windows 11, but the tweak comes with some serious caveats.
Windows is slowing your SSD down by default
A legacy storage setting quietly holds modern NVMe drives back
For over a decade, Microsoft has been treating your blazing fast NVMe SSDs like they’re old-school hard drives. Every time your system talks to your NVMe drive, it goes through a translation layer that converts NVMe commands into SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) commands—a protocol dating back to the 1980s. Windows 11 settings may kill your SSD’s lifespan, but the OS itself is slowing it down by default.
Why does this matter? NVMe was designed to support up to 64,000 queues with 64,000 commands each, enabling massive parallelism and hence, faster data transfers. SCSI can only handle a single queue with 32 commands. Using SCSI with NVMe works, but it leaves a massive amount of performance on the table.
Microsoft claims that enabling native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025 delivers up to 80% more IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second)—a metric that measures how many data reads or writes a storage device can perform in one second. It also results in 45% fewer CPU cycles per I/O operation compared to the old SCSI translation approach. You can boost your SSD’s performance by nearly twice as much using this feature compared to the existing SCSI approach.
The registry tweak that unlocks native NVMe performance
A few commands can unlock your SSD’s full potential
The native NVMe driver Microsoft shipped in Windows Server 2025 already exists in Windows 11 version 25H2. You can activate it by adding three registry values that tell Windows to bypass the legacy SCSI layer entirely.
Native NVMe support in Windows 11 isn’t officially supported yet. Make sure you’ve backed up your system and understand the risks before proceeding.
The easiest way to enable this is to run the following commands in an elevated Windows Terminal:
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Restart your PC after running the commands for the changes to take effect. Alternatively, you can manually add the registry values by following these steps.
- Press Windows Key + R to open the Run prompt. Type regedit and press Enter.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides
- Create an Overrides key if it doesn’t exist by right-clicking in the left pane.
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Create three new DWORD (32-bit) values:
- 735209102 with value data 1
- 1853569164 with value data 1
- 156965516 with value data 1
- Restart your computer.
After rebooting, you can verify the change worked by opening the Device Manager. Your NVMe drive should now appear under Storage Media instead of Devices, confirming that Windows is now using the new native driver.
Microsoft claims that an 80% IOPS improvement was measured on Windows Server 2025. On consumer Windows 11 systems, you can expect the results to be more modest.
The performance gains are most pronounced in workloads involving many simultaneous small file operations—exactly the kind of scenario where NVME’s multi-queue architecture shines. For everyday tasks like web browsing or launching single applications, you likely won’t notice much of a difference. In any case, performance gains can vary significantly based on your specific SSD model and workload.
This tweak can break your system if you get it wrong
Boot failures, data loss, and unusable backups
Before you rush to the Registry Editor to make the most out of your NVMe drive, keep in mind that Microsoft hasn’t enabled this feature on consumer Windows for good reason. The ecosystem isn’t ready for it yet.
For starters, Safe Mode breaks completely. NVMe support causes Safe Mode to fail because it can’t load the necessary drivers during boot. A workaround exists that involves manually adding registry keys to enable the NVMe disk class for Safe Mode, but this adds another layer of complexity and risk.
Since the change affects disk IDs, backup software can stop functioning too. When Windows switches from the SCSI adapter to the native NVMe driver, it can change your disk’s unique identifier. This means that backup programs may no longer recognize your drive until you reconfigure them.
The same goes for storage management tools. Since most Windows software assumes drives use SCSI commands, some utilities may fail to recognize NVMe drives properly. Or worse, detect them twice as two different drives.
Last but not least, vendor drivers provide no benefit. This tweak only works if you’re using Microsoft’s inbox StoreNVMe.sys driver. If you’ve installed a manufacturer-specific NVMe driver from the likes of Samsung, Intel, or another vendor, native NVMe support won’t help.
Is the speed boost worth the risk?
Who should try it, who absolutely shouldn’t, and safer alternatives to consider
If you’re the type who enjoys living on the bleeding edge and testing new features, this tweak offers a glimpse into Windows’ storage future. Just make sure you’ve got backups and understand that you’re running an experimental feature that can break your machine. There are other, simple ways to gain more performance from your NVMe SSD that might be worth exploring first.
This Is The #1 Upgrade That Makes an Old PC Feel Brand New
An NVMe SSD is the best bang for your buck when it comes to speeding up an old PC.
For most users, the modest performance gains don’t justify the compatibility headaches and system stability risks. Microsoft will likely enable native NVMe support on Windows 11 officially after testing and sorting out compatibility and stability issues. So it might be in your best interest to wait.
If you’re running storage-intensive workloads like video editing, software development, databases, or virtualization, and you have a modern PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 NVMe drive, the improved IOPS and reduced latency might be worth the risk. Just don’t say you weren’t warned when your system breaks, and you need to dig into recovery options.