The process of enhancing SSD performance through registry modifications has garnered attention among tech enthusiasts and professionals alike. By executing a series of commands, users can potentially unlock significant improvements in data transfer speeds, particularly for PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The initial step involves adding specific values to the Windows registry, which can be achieved with the following commands:
Step 1: Command to add the values to the registry
reg add HKEYLOCALMACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f reg add HKEYLOCALMACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f reg add HKEYLOCALMACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetPoliciesMicrosoftFeatureManagementOverrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Following these adjustments, a system restart is necessary to observe the changes within the Device Manager. Accessing this feature is straightforward; a right-click on the Start icon will suffice. Users can expect to see the following modifications:
Step 2: Checking the device manager after a restart
- Before: The SSD drives are visible in the Device Manager under “Disk drives”.
- After: The SSD drives are now visible in the Device Manager under “Storage disks”.
This transition not only reflects the successful activation of the new driver but also confirms that the nvmedisk.sys driver is now in use for the respective SSD. Users are encouraged to check for updates in the driver dialog, although no updates were found on my Windows 25H2 system.
The rationale behind this entire procedure varies depending on individual system configurations. A report from Heise indicates that users could see a 10 to 15% increase in data speeds with a PCIe 4.0 SSD in a workstation setting. Interestingly, even PCIe Gen 3.0 SSDs demonstrated improvements through this method. My Acer Swift 16 Edge laptop, equipped with two Micron 3400 PCIe 4.0 SSDs—one with 1TB and another with 512GB—serves as a practical example of these enhancements.
Benchmark comparisons reveal promising results. The AS SSD benchmark showed increases of up to 45% in sequential reading performance, significantly surpassing the figures reported by Heise. Write performance also saw an uptick of 15%. Notably, the 4K-64 thread test yielded higher results post-driver change, a metric particularly relevant for server applications. For my second drive, the 1TB SSD, sequential read performance improved by approximately 23%, while write performance surged by 30%, effectively doubling the gains observed on the primary drive. These performance enhancements come at no additional cost, a welcome relief given the rising prices of RAM and SSDs.
While the benefits are compelling, it is essential to approach this hack with caution. Reports from users on the Deskmodder forum highlight potential issues with SSD management tools such as Samsung Magician and the Western Digital Dashboard, with some noting modifications to partitions. Although this hack may yield quicker boot times and improved file transfer speeds, those with more complex requirements should exercise discretion. Furthermore, compatibility with all NVMe SSDs is not guaranteed, making it imperative for users to weigh the risks against the potential rewards.
