NVMe drive Archives

Winsage

July 7, 2026

New Windows 11 Cloud Recovery Restores PCs And Drivers Without A USB Drive

Microsoft is introducing a new feature called 'Cloud rebuild' in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, which allows users to reinstall the operating system directly from Microsoft's servers without the need for installation media. This feature bypasses local issues that may prevent a system from resetting itself, as it connects to Windows Update to download a fresh copy of the OS. Cloud rebuild also improves driver handling by fetching hardware-specific drivers during the reinstall process, ensuring the machine is online and ready to go. Users must enroll in the Insider program's Experimental channel to access this feature, which appears under the Troubleshoot menu when a PC fails to boot multiple times. A wired Ethernet connection works immediately, while Wi-Fi requires entering the network password. However, the feature has caveats, including the need for a working network driver in the recovery environment and compliance with Windows 11 hardware requirements. The Cloud rebuild process completely wipes the system disk, erasing all local files, applications, accounts, and settings, although data synced to OneDrive remains intact. Microsoft warns against shutting down the system during the rebuild process, as it could prevent Windows from booting.

AppWizard

June 22, 2026

Steam Machine review: Valve’s underwhelming living-room PC has a serious price problem

The Steam Machine is a compact gaming system measuring 16.5 × 15.5 × 15.3 cm, designed to run SteamOS and provide access to the Steam library while offering a user experience similar to consoles. It features a custom AMD CPU with six cores and twelve threads, 16 MiB of L3 cache, and a maximum clock speed of 4.86 GHz. The system includes 16 GiB of DDR5 memory and a discrete Radeon graphics unit with 8 GiB of GDDR6 video memory based on the Navi 33 architecture, operating with 28 compute units and a power budget of 110 watts. Storage consists of an NVMe drive with approximately 1.9 TB of space and a zram swap of around 7.6 GiB. The Steam Machine runs SteamOS 3.8.9 in its x86-64 version, allowing it to function as either a Linux PC or a gaming interface. Connectivity options include one HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, four USB-A ports, a USB-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. Its hardware is aligned with PC architecture but lacks the customization options of a bespoke system.

Winsage

May 19, 2026

Your SSD has built-in maintenance tools that Windows keeps hidden from you

Modern SSDs are highly reliable and require minimal maintenance. Windows includes tools for SSD health management, such as the TRIM command, which helps optimize performance by allowing the SSD to clean unnecessary data blocks. Users can check if TRIM is active using the Command Prompt. The "Optimize Drives" utility schedules SSD optimization routines and sends ReTrim commands. S.M.A.R.T. technology monitors SSD health, but the information is not easily accessible. Third-party tools like CrystalDiskInfo offer more detailed insights. Windows' Storage Sense feature helps manage storage on smaller SSDs by cleaning temporary files and freeing up space. The write caching policy in Device Manager enhances SSD performance, and users can adjust settings in the BIOS for optimization. Windows reserves SSD space for virtual memory and hibernation, which can be managed to reclaim storage. Overall, Windows provides built-in features to help maintain SSD performance and longevity.

Winsage

March 25, 2026

Microsoft Removes Registry Hack for Faster NVMe SSDs in Windows 11

Microsoft has removed a registry hack that allowed users to unlock faster speeds for NVMe SSDs, following the introduction of native NVMe SSD support in Windows Server 2025. This change aims to enhance SSD performance by eliminating the need for the previous method that translated NVMe commands into SCSI commands, which caused latency and reduced speeds. Currently, Windows 11 does not support native NVMe SSD processing and continues to use the older command conversion method. Although the registry hack is now obsolete, third-party tools like ViVeTool can still enable this feature through specific commands, but using such tools carries risks.

Winsage

February 14, 2026

Windows 98 On A 2020 ThinkPad P14s Gen 1 Laptop

The x86 architecture allows users to run operating systems from the 1990s on modern hardware. Yeo Kheng Meng successfully booted Windows 98 SE on a 2020 ThinkPad P12s Gen 1 alongside Windows 11 and Linux from a single NVMe drive. He previously ran MS-DOS 6.22 on a 2020 ThinkPad X13. The main challenges included UEFI complexities and the need for compatible hardware drivers. Both ThinkPad models support UEFI-CSM mode. To address the lack of xHCI support in Windows 98, Yeo used a USB 2.0 expansion card through a Thunderbolt dock. The installation involved disabling Secure Boot, enabling UEFI-CSM, activating Thunderbolt BIOS assist mode, and turning off Kernel DMA protection. Yeo used the CREGFIX DOS driver for stability and applied patches from Rudolph Loew to overcome Windows 98's RAM limitation of 512 MB. Users must rely on basic VESA support and the SoftGPU driver for graphics acceleration due to the absence of updated drivers from Intel and NVIDIA. Disk access is routed through the BIOS, leading to suboptimal performance. Yeo configured the BIOS to support the S3 power state to address ACPI support issues. UEFI-CSM is often overlooked in newer systems, complicating the installation of Windows 7 and contributing to divides in the x86 ecosystem.

Winsage

December 17, 2025

Windows Server 2025 Gets Native NVMe SSD Support After 12 Years

Microsoft has introduced native NVMe SSD support in Windows Server 2025 as an opt-in feature, marking a significant advancement 12 years after NVMe's inception. This new support allows direct multi-queue access to hardware, delivering up to 3.3 million IOPS on PCIe Gen 5 SSDs and over 10 million IOPS on Host Bus Adapters, while significantly reducing latency. The previous reliance on converting NVMe commands to SCSI commands caused processing latency and overhead. Native NVMe support eliminates outdated translation layers, enhances CPU utilization, and unlocks next-generation storage capabilities. Microsoft has set up an email address, nativenvme@microsoft.com, for user feedback and inquiries. There is no current information on the timeline for native NVMe support in Windows 11.

AppWizard

October 15, 2025

For just $554.99, this MSI gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU is a bona fide bargain

Walmart is offering the MSI Thin laptop for 9. The laptop features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, a 13th-generation Intel Core i5 13420H processor, and 16GB of RAM. It has a 15.6-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 512GB SSD. The RTX 4050 supports Nvidia DLSS 4 upscaling and has 2,560 CUDA cores with 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The laptop's RAM is in DDR4 SODIMM format, allowing upgrades up to 64GB. The Intel Core i5 processor has eight cores, with a boost capability of up to 4.6GHz. The storage can be upgraded as it uses a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive and a standard M.2 socket.

Winsage

August 28, 2025

It wasn’t supposed to work, but someone booted this retro Windows OS on one of 2025’s fastest CPUs

A YouTuber named Omores successfully booted Windows 98 on a Ryzen 9900X CPU. This required various modifications, including BIOS tweaks, using a PCI SATA card to bypass modern SATA controllers, and employing a PCIe-to-PCI adapter. Additional adjustments involved disabling ACPI and using a Gen 5 NVMe SSD with a partition limited to 8.5 GB. The project demonstrated the capabilities of the vintage operating system, with successful benchmark results using retro graphics cards like the GeForce 7900 GS and ATI X700LE.

Winsage

May 2, 2025

How To Dual Boot Linux and Windows on any PC

The process of installing Linux has evolved from text-based installers in the late 1990s to user-friendly graphical installers in distributions like Ubuntu and OpenSUSE. Users can start with a single-board computer like the Raspberry Pi or set up a dual-boot configuration with Windows and Linux using a custom boot menu called GRUB. It is advisable to back up the drive before installation to prevent data loss. To create a Linux Install USB, users need to download an ISO image of the Linux distribution and use Rufus to write it onto a USB drive of at least 8GB. The steps include selecting the USB drive, choosing the Linux OS, selecting the GPT partition scheme, and writing the OS in ISO image mode. For dual-boot installation, users should insert the USB drive, boot from it, and select “Try or Install Ubuntu” from the GRUB menu. After testing hardware functionality, the installation process involves selecting language, configuring accessibility, choosing keyboard layout, connecting to the Internet, and selecting installation options. Users must choose “Install Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager” and allocate space for each operating system. After installation, users need to adjust BIOS settings to ensure the system boots from the Linux installation. This includes selecting the Boot menu, setting the Linux install as Boot Option 1, and saving the changes. Upon rebooting, users can select their Linux OS from the GRUB menu and verify the functionality of both operating systems.

Winsage

March 19, 2025

How to transfer your Windows 11 setup to a new hard drive — no extra app required

Users of Windows 11 may need to upgrade their hard drive due to space constraints or the drive nearing the end of its lifespan, typically within three to five years. They can create a system image backup using the Backup and Restore feature in Windows 11. To create a system image, users must access the Control Panel, navigate to System and Security, and select "Create a system image." The backup can be saved on a hard disk, and users can choose to include additional drives. To create a USB bootable media for recovery, users should visit the Windows 11 download page, download the Media Creation Tool, and follow the prompts to create a USB flash drive. Replacing the hard drive involves powering down the computer, removing the cover, disconnecting cables, and installing the new drive. After installation, users can restore the previous Windows 11 installation from the system image backup by booting from the USB drive and selecting "System Image Recovery." If the new drive has unallocated space, users can create a new partition or expand the existing setup partition. To create a data partition, users can access Settings, navigate to Storage, and create a new volume from unallocated space. To expand the setup partition, users must delete the recovery partition, extend the installation drive, and recreate the recovery partition using Command Prompt and Disk Management. Finally, users should re-enable BitLocker after completing these processes.