This hidden Home windows 11 trick unlocks SSD velocity enhance for NVMe drives
Microsoft lately began providing customers of contemporary SSDs an choice to considerably enhance their drive speeds. Particularly, this includes a efficiency enhance for NVMe drives.
NVMe stands for Non-Risky Reminiscence Specific and is a very quick protocol for SSDs that communicates instantly with the processor through the PCIe interface. Due to this, NVMe SSDs outperform standard SATA SSDs. Till now, nonetheless, Home windows didn’t supply a local driver for NVMe drives, which restricted their efficiency.
This modified in December 2025 when Microsoft introduced Native NVMe for Home windows Server 2025, which can also be accessible on Home windows 11. Nevertheless, you have to manually activate it your self to make the most of its advantages. Right here’s allow it and whether or not it’s price doing so.
Some great benefits of Native NVMe
Based on Microsoft, listed here are the benefits:
- Large IOPS will increase: Precise efficiency restrict of the {hardware} is totally unlocked.
- Decrease latency: Shorter round-trip occasions for every operation.
- Increased CPU effectivity: Extra computing energy for purposes as a substitute of storage overhead.
- Assist for superior NVMe options: For instance, multi-queue and direct command transmission.
In particular use circumstances, this might enhance sequential speeds by as much as 500 MB/s in addition to as much as 80 p.c extra IOPS. As well as, utilizing the native driver ought to save as much as 45 p.c in computing energy.
These values might range relying in your system and SSD sort, after all. On the whole, nonetheless, customers appear to learn considerably from the efficiency enhance—and all you want is a appropriate NVMe SSD and Home windows 11 25H2 to start out taking benefit now.
There are some caveats, although
Earlier than you flip this function on, know that there’s a threat. Based on some studies, issues can come up with sure SSDs. Some exhausting drive managers not acknowledge NVMe storage after the motive force is enabled, whereas different drives disappear utterly or get listed twice.
As well as, in just a few circumstances, there was greater CPU utilization and/or lag, particularly in video games that use DirectStorage. Apparently, there’s a compatibility concern right here that must be investigated additional.
activate the NVMe enhance
To activate the brand new NVMe driver in Home windows 11, it’s best to first examine the motive force particulars part of your storage drive in Machine Supervisor and be certain that your drive is utilizing StorNVMe.sys. In any other case, activating this driver could have no impact in your system.
If appropriate, there are two methods to activate the motive force:
Possibility 1: Home windows Registry
- Use the Home windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run window, then sort
regeditto launch Registry Editor. - In Registry Editor, navigate to ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides.
- On this folder, right-click and add the next REG_DWORD values, every with hexadecimal worth “1”:
156965516,1853569164,735209102. - Restart your PC.
If you wish to undo the change, navigate again to the identical folder and delete the three values. The change will take impact after restarting.
Possibility 2: PowerShell
Alternatively, you should use Home windows PowerShell to enter the next instructions (with admin rights):
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f-
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f- Restart your PC.
These two strategies are at the moment the one methods to activate Native NVMe in Home windows 11, because it’s really meant to be used below Home windows Server. The efficiency enhance is primarily geared toward companies, however personal customers can even activate it to learn.
Nevertheless, there’s no assure that each NVMe SSD will reply to the change in the identical manner. The potential issues described above should happen. If that is so, it’s best to undo the change and anticipate Microsoft to replace the drivers earlier than making an attempt once more.
Additional studying: Unlock extra SSD efficiency with these 5 tweaks
This text initially appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.

