Microsoft blocks trick to unlock native NVMe driver, but workarounds still exist

Microsoft has blocked the registry trick that allowed Windows 11 users to enable native NVMe support on their PCs, according to members of the My Digital Life forum, who first noticed the change in recent Windows 11 Insider builds. The trick, which ported a Windows Server 2025 feature to consumer PCs running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, had delivered up to 85% higher random write performance in earlier benchmarks. Unfortunately, the four FeatureManagement registry overrides that previously activated the native NVMe stack no longer function. The native NVMe driver (nvmedisk.sys) replaces the legacy storage path that has routed NVMe commands through a SCSI translation layer since before NVMe SSDs existed. Microsoft originally shipped the driver in Windows Server 2025 last December, claiming up to 80% higher IOPS and 45% lower CPU utilization under high I/O loads. The driver binary was already present in Windows 11 but disabled by default. Within days of the Server 2025 announcement, enthusiasts discovered that toggling specific registry keys forced Windows 11 to load the native driver. Benchmarks varied by drive and CPU, but gains in random I/O were consistent. AS SSD testing by Neowin also showed substantial write speed improvements, and StorageReview's server-side FIO benchmarks measured up to 64.89% faster 4K random reads. The registry trick came with caveats, though. Third-party SSD management tools like Samsung Magician and Western Digital Dashboard were not compatible with the new driver, and BitLocker could trigger recovery prompts after the driver swap. While the registry method is dead, users can still enable native NVMe through ViVeTool, according to Deskmodder, a third-party utility that toggles hidden Windows features. The relevant feature IDs are 60786016 and 48433719. This does require an elevated command prompt, and a reboot is still necessary for the change to take effect. The same compatibility risks naturally apply, and users running BitLocker should suspend protection before attempting the change. It’s not yet known when native NVMe support will be rolled out to Windows 11 25H2 and 26H2 users.