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Screenshot of higher IOPS when running Native NVMe stack on Windows Server 2025.
Windows Server News and Best Practices
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Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025: Ushering in a New Era of Storage Performance

Yash_Shekar's avatar
Yash_Shekar
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Dec 15, 2025

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 WS2025!

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 for your most demanding workloads. Modern ...
Updated Jan 05, 2026
Version 2.0
NVME SSD
storage
windows server
vasekv's avatar
vasekv
Copper Contributor
Dec 30, 2025

A few things are boggling my mind.

  1. Why did you wait until the October update to announce this, when the nvmedisk.sys file has been in Windows Server 2025 since the beginning?
  2. Why are you announcing this now in December, when it was released in the October update, as you claim?
  3. Why is there no mention of this in the release notes for the October update?
  4. What exactly does the number 1176759950 in the registry mean?
  5. Why does enabling Windows 11 in the registry require three different and completely different numbers, and what do these numbers mean? (I know this isn't primarily a question for Microsoft, but I'd still like to know).

Thanks.

Elden_Christensen's avatar
Elden_Christensen
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jan 05, 2026

This is a change to the existing driver that came in through servicing in the October update, so you need the October update or later for Windows Server 2025.  It's not a new driver.  The functionality is controlled by the users who choose to opt-in, it's enabled by default in the Windows Server Insider builds for vNext.   Thanks!