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Microsoft Removes Registry Hack for Faster NVMe SSDs in Windows 11

erek

erek

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"Microsoft has introduced native NVMe SSD support in its Windows Server 2025 build, now available as an opt-in feature for users. After 12 years of NVMe's existence and years of support in the Linux kernel and Linux-based operating systems, native support has been added to the Windows Server stack. Previously, Microsoft converted NVMe drive commands into SCSI commands, which resulted in processing latency and overhead, slowing down read/write speeds in typically high-performing storage configurations. With native NVMe support, the entire stack and I/O processing have been redesigned to achieve optimal SSD performance.

System administrators don't need data to recognize the significant performance improvements that native NVMe support will bring. Windows Server 2025's native NVMe support fundamentally transforms storage performance by enabling direct multi-queue access to modern hardware. It delivers up to 3.3 million IOPS on PCIe Gen 5 SSDs and exceeds 10 million IOPS on HBAs, while reducing latency through streamlined, lock-free I/O paths. This leap in efficiency is essential because traditional SCSI-based processing, originally designed for rotational disks with a single-queue model limited to 32 commands, cannot fully utilize flash storage."

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Source: https://www.techpowerup.com/344192/windows-server-2025-gets-native-nvme-ssd-support-after-12-years
 
Cool. When does this come to client-side Windows? Also, admittedly off topic, does Linux do it yet?
 
This does not surprise me in the least.
Everything Microsoft has done in the last decade has been shit for customers by destroying their OS and gaming divisions while focusing on cloud compute/storage and AI... which also is why they are now a $3.5 trillion megacorp. :whistle:
 
Is there any consistent proof that NVME inherently perform better on Linux than Windows? I feel like this would be a known thing if true.
 
In all fairness to Microsoft on this one, until very recently, exceedingly few servers would use raw NVME drives for boot or storage. I feel this is a change to help performance on budget servers for small business.
Dell, HPE, Lenovo, etc... They all use a PCIe RAID controller card for NVMe boot devices.

And even in cases where you are using it for storage and not the boot device, you would be using it in some form of RAID array and I can't think of many scenarios where you would be using software RAID like Storage Spaces, you would almost always have that connected to a backplane, which would likely connect through an SCSI interface to a hardware raid controller.
This will certainly help those who are using PCIe cards and bifurication to add NVME storage to their machines, which, again, until recently, wasn't something you would see in an enterprise production space.
 
Red Falcon said:
This does not surprise me in the least.
Everything Microsoft has done in the last decade has been shit for customers by destroying their OS and gaming divisions while focusing on cloud compute/storage and AI... which also is why they are now a $3.5 trillion megacorp. :whistle:
Click to expand...
Server 2025 is actually pretty good. I am in the process of upgrading my Server 2019 instances to 2025, and so far it is a VERY clean OS The Datacenter build with GUI interface enabled uses less than 2GB RAM at idle with none of that AI add-on garbage.
So far, the most intrusive thing on the OS is the automatic inclusion of Azure ARC, which I am on the fence about configuring....
 
Red Falcon said:
This does not surprise me in the least.
Everything Microsoft has done in the last decade has been shit for customers by destroying their OS and gaming divisions while focusing on cloud compute/storage and AI... which also is why they are now a $3.5 trillion megacorp. :whistle:
Click to expand...
Hack job patches and bandaids for things.....

Versus just doing it right....something like NVMe support, wonder if it is due to how much old legacy code is in Windows, why they just wrote a new layer to do the communication back to SCSI...

Lakados Hyper-V clusters, sure the ideal way is to be using a SAN/DAS et cetera, but with Microsoft's storage spaces..how many business are doing it like a VxRail cluster, where all the storage/compute is on the same node...
 
MrGuvernment said:
Hack job patches and bandaids for things.....

Versus just doing it right....something like NVMe support, wonder if it is due to how much old legacy code is in Windows, why they just wrote a new layer to do the communication back to SCSI...

Lakados Hyper-V clusters, sure the ideal way is to be using a SAN/DAS et cetera, but with Microsoft's storage spaces..how many business are doing it like a VxRail cluster, where all the storage/compute is on the same node...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get that, but it was only around 2019 or so when NVME drives got to a place where they were better than SAS SSDs for most server workloads, and it wasn't until the standardization of the MR-IOV extension for the SR-IOV protocol as part of the NVMe 2.0 specification that it actually got good for VM hosts, and that was introduced in early 2021. But you couldn't really buy any NVME devices that properly met the standard until mid-2022. So, really using raw NVME drives in the server space, actually using NVME protocols, is a relatively new thing, but Server 2025 should have shipped with the function, considering they added it to Server 2022, in 2023
 

“Microsoft Removes Registry Hack for Faster NVMe SSDs in Windows 11​

by AleksandarK Today, 04:22 Discuss (8 Comments)
Microsoft has quietly removed a registry hack workaround that enabled faster NVMe SSD speeds by activating a native NVMe software stack. Late last year, Microsoft gradually introduced native NVMe SSD support in Windows Server 2025 as an opt-in feature. This was significant news for Windows Server users who had been dealing with non-native NVMe SSD processing, which was emulated through a series of commands. For instance, Windows converted NVMe drive commands into SCSI commands, resulting in processing latency and overhead, which slowed down read/write speeds in typically high-performing storage configurations. With native NVMe support, the entire stack and I/O processing have been redesigned to achieve optimal SSD performance, running at native speeds.

Within the Windows enthusiast community, there were a series of registry hacks that allowed the system to run native NVMe processing through various unofficial OS modifications. Below is the old method, which Microsoft has now blocked. Perhaps the reason for blocking this hack is that Microsoft is preparing to launch native NVMe SSD processing with the upcoming Windows 11 25H2 update for everyone and the 26H2 update for Windows-on-Arm devices. For now Windows 11 doesn't support the native NVMe SSD processing, and instead relies on the older drive commands conversion into SCSI.“
 
erek said:
After 12 years of NVMe's existence and years of support in the Linux kernel and Linux-based operating systems, native support has been added to the Windows Server stack. Previously, Microsoft converted NVMe drive commands into SCSI commands, which resulted in processing latency and overhead, slowing down read/write speeds in typically high-performing storage configurations.
Click to expand...
Is this true? Have they been converting NVMe to SCSI?
elon is that true.jpg
 
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I hear these claims, but is there definitive proof that an NVME drive is faster under other OS’s compared to Windows?

I understand there can be optimizations, but these articles are written as if Windows is handicapped compared to other OS’s.
 
westrock2000 said:
I hear these claims, but is there definitive proof that an NVME drive is faster under other OS’s compared to Windows?

I understand there can be optimizations, but these articles are written as if Windows is handicapped compared to other OS’s.
Click to expand...
Not a direct answer. But for "things that matter", if you are truly curious, you could use Phoronix's storage and file systems tests to cover "what matters to you" and compare.

While I love Phoronix Test Suite, and it can produce a lot of data, it evolves too quickly to be used as comparison DB (talking openbenchmarking) on it's own (using other people's submissions). But useful if you want to satisfy your own curiosity.
 
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