Introduction
This blog will be all about installing Intel I211, I217V, I218V and I219V drivers on Windows Server 2016 with EUFI boot. I’m running Windows Server 2016 as my main OS for lab, testing, Hyper-V with nested virtualization etc. I like it that way because I have all the options of the server OS at my disposal. Especially with the nested virtualization an NVME disk comes in handy. I also boot from NVMe so I need UEFI and use secure boot. That’s OK as it’s way better than the old BIOS and enables more scenario.
Windows Server 2016 doesn’t have any drivers for the I211, I217V, I218V and the I219V NICs.
The Intel driver for them are only for Windows 10 and won’t install on a server OS. As you can see in the screenshot above that’s a system where I have the I211 driver already installed actually. We’ll work on the I218V as an example here.
That’s nothing new and we’ve dealt with this before by editing the .inf file for the driver. What might be new to some people as EUFI & NVME become a bit more popular is how to get a driver with an edited .inf file installed on your Windows Server OS.
Don’t worry even with an OS booting from EUFI with secure boot you can still disable driver signing / integrity checking when needed. We’ll walk you through an approach for installing Intel I211, I217V, I218V and I219V drivers on Windows Server 2016 with EUFI boot.
Installing Intel I211, I217V, I218V and I219V drivers on Windows Server 2016 with EUFI boot
Google for the Intel drivers of your NIC. Mine is a I218V. The instructions will work for a I217V or and i219V as well. Just adapt accordingly.
After downloading the most recent Windows 10 (x64 bit, we’ll use them with a server OS so there is no 32 bit here) Intel drivers form the Intel site we rename the exe to identify what package it is. We then extract the content to our work space. A free tool like 7zip will do the job just fine.
Prepping the .INF file
For the I211 we need to edit the .inf file and for the I217V, 218V and 219V we’ll edit the e1d65x64.inf file in note pad or your editor of choice. You’ll find it in the NDIS65 folder: C:\SysAdmin\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65. The 65 in the folder and file names identifies our OS version (Windows 10 / Windows Server 2016).
But how do we know what .inf file to edit? We grab the hardware ID’s from the properties of our NIC or NICS.
Below you see the Hardware IDs for mu I218V. The I211 has PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1539&SUBSYS_85F01043&REV_03 and my Iv218V has PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A1&SUBSYS_85C41043&REV_05.
Drop the PCI\ from the beginning of the string and everything from the “&” on at the end. So for the I211 we’ll use VEN_8086&DEV_1539 and for the I218V we’ll use VEN_8086&DEV_15A1. We throw these ID strings into some PowerShell we run in our C:\SysAdmin\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65 folder.
Get-ChildItem -Path “C:\SysAdmin\IntelWindows10Drivers21.1\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65”
-recurse | Select-String -pattern “ven_8086&dev_1539” | group path | select name
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\SysAdmin\IntelWindows10Drivers21.1\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65"
-recurse | Select-String -pattern “ven_8086&dev_15A1” | group path | select name
So for my I218V I open op the e1d65x64.inf file in notepad++
I search for [ControlFlags] section and I edit the content of that section by deleting everything in it.
So it looks likes
Then I search for section [Intel.NTamd64.10.0.1] and I copy everything in there (I don’t bother to only copy the entries for my particular NIC or so.
Copy everything under that heading
I then search for section [Intel.NTamd64.10.0] and I paste what I just copied from section [Intel.NTamd64.10.0.1] nicely underneath what’s already in there.
Save the file. Basically, you’re done here.
Installing the driver
We now need to alter the standard startup setting of Windows Server 2016 temporarily because we will not be able to install a driver that’s been tampered with. If you don’t lower the security settings, you’ll get an error just like this one:
What I did is run the following in an elevated command prompt:
bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
Note: as I’m using UEFI & secure boot the following won’t work as if you were using an older BIOS without secure boot.
bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON
bcdedit /set nointegritychecks OFF
But that’s OK. What we need to do is turn it of in another way. That last command bcdedit /set nointegritychecks OFF iIs not needed anyway. So, forget about that one. As a replacement for bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON you can use and advanced start option (requires reboot). You can also disable secure boot in EUFI, start again and then run bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON. I prefer the first as fixes itself the next boot and I don’t have to turn secure boot on again afterwards.
Go to setting and select Update & security.
Navigate to Recovery and click Restart Now
It will reboot to the following screen.Click Troubleshoot.
Select and click Advanced options.
Click Startup Settings.
We click restart on the next screen
It will restart Advanced boot options. Select to disable driver signature enforcement. Hit ENTER.
When your server has restarted, you’ll be able to install the driver you tampered with. To do so, in device manager select your NIC and click Update Driver Software.
Select to Browse my computer for driver software
Point to the C:\SysAdmin\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65 folder with your edited .inf files.
You’ll get a warning that the publisher of this driver can’t be verified. But as you’re the one doing the tampering here, you’ll be fine.
The result is successful install of the driver with a functional NIC for your system.
Cool, you’re in business!
No please reverse the setting you made to the integrity checks to make your system more secure again. From an elevated command prompt run:
bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
Now reboot and you’re all secure again. That’s it, you’re done. I had both an I211 and an I218V NIC on my motherboard so I had to do this for both. Happy testing!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was a life saver getting this driver installed. You did seem to have your paths backwards with PRO1000\PROWinx64 but it was easy to follow. Thanks again!
Thanks a lot !
I had the same issue, this helped a lot to get a i219-V NIC on Windows 2012R2 working.
But i am really wondering why it’s not working by default. There is a folder for 2012R2 drivers but it does not accept. Is this a wanted behavior from Intel?
Hello Markus
Could you please upload the edited i219-v driver for windows server 2012 r2
Thank you so much
Just open the e1d64x64.inf file and add these 3 lines:
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6&SUBSYS_00011179
I have added them to this section in the file:
[Intel.NTamd64.6.3]
The complete section looks like this afterwards:
[Intel.NTamd64.6.3]
; DisplayName Section DeviceID
; ———– ——- ——–
%E153ANC.DeviceDesc% = E153A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_153A
%E153ANC.DeviceDesc% = E153A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_153A&SUBSYS_00008086
%E153ANC.DeviceDesc% = E153A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_153A&SUBSYS_00011179
%E155ANC.DeviceDesc% = E155A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_155A
%E155ANC.DeviceDesc% = E155A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_155A&SUBSYS_00008086
%E155ANC.DeviceDesc% = E155A, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_155A&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15A0NC.DeviceDesc% = E15A0, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A0
%E15A0NC.DeviceDesc% = E15A0, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A0&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15A2NC.DeviceDesc% = E15A2, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A2
%E15A2NC.DeviceDesc% = E15A2, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A2&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15A2NC.DeviceDesc% = E15A2, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A2&SUBSYS_00011179
%E156FNC.DeviceDesc% = E156F, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_156F
%E156FNC.DeviceDesc% = E156F, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_156F&SUBSYS_00008086
%E156FNC.DeviceDesc% = E156F, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_156F&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15B7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B7
%E15B7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B7&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15B7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B7&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15B9NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B9, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B9
%E15B9NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B9, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B9&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15B9NC.DeviceDesc% = E15B9, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B9&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15D7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D7
%E15D7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D7&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15D7NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D7, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D7&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15E3NC.DeviceDesc% = E15E3, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E3
%E15E3NC.DeviceDesc% = E15E3, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E3&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15E3NC.DeviceDesc% = E15E3, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E3&SUBSYS_00011179
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15D6NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D6, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D6&SUBSYS_00011179
Thank you very much.
I will try it and comment.
THANK YOU !!!
i211 on Win2016 is working now. You are my hero 🙂
Always nice to hear it helped some one out. Thx for reading!
Thank you for posting this detailed information!
Glad it helped. Thx for reading!
Thanks for the help and for going into so much detail!
Thanks man! Used the same approach for an I219-V on windows server2016 and worked perfect!
Thank you! The I219-V on windows server 2016 is working!
Thank you! My I219-V is now working on Windows Server 2016.
Thank you so much! , you saved me a lot of trouble.
Outstanding post. Really saved my bacon.
wow, thanks a lot, it’s awesome. i couldn’t sleep bcz this one. hahaha
this msg from korea,
감사합니다:)
and my NIC is i217-v.
i did this below step,
1. GET YOUR LAN DRIVER HARDWARE ID
Get-ChildItem -Path “C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65”-recurse | Select-String -pattern “ven_8086&dev_153B” | group path | select name
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-ChildItem -Path “C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65”-recurse | Select-String -pattern “ven_8086&dev_153B” | group path | select name
Name
—-
C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf
2. EDIT e1d65x64.inf
3. CMD – BCDEDIT
bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON
bcdedit /set nointegritychecks OFF
4. REBOOT BY DISABLE AUTOMATIC RESTART ON SYSTEM FAILURE
5. INSTALL DRIVER MANUAL
6. CMD – bcdedit
bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
Hi all, I found that fx the I217-V card can be made to work by forcing install of the certified I217-LM driver, available in the device manager driver db on Server 2016.
It does complain, but choose to load anyway and its been working all day here.
Cheers
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Thanks A Lot really . You saved my time & money ..
It worked exactly what you described above…
Thanks !!!!
You are most welcome.
gracias funciono perfecto
Happy it helped!
thanks it works 100% ^^
I’ve installed the driver but windows says that there is no connection, mine is i219-v can you help me, thanks.
I used Shift key & restart to get into start up options, any differences between that and going thru security
Downloaded latest ver of proset 23.1 and run install. after about 3rd to last prompt of install. (leave install open) you go to users\”insert username here”\appdata\temp\ and copy RarSFX0 folder (directory) complete to the desktop or somewhere. when you exit install, install erases this folder. (install will fail, but that does not matter the goal is to get the drivers). This folder has all the inf files. You still need to edit .inf as shown above and turn off driver signing. Works great on any server version. The only Issue I had was I did not realize power shell 4 lines of command was all one command. Once I did powershell as one long command all was good. Did on Asrock 270z with 211 and 219v nic. Both nics work. I wonder if I can “TEAM” the nics next. I transferred terabytes with no issues.
This worked like a charm for the I219-V driver, but this doesn’t seem like it is possible to modify the RTL8822BE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter driver in the same way. It would be nice to get this working…
Thanks for the detailed solution and clarity of your solution.
I is disappointing that vendors like intel don’t simply make the drivers install, they could state that they are not supported for server, but at least allow them to install. Windows server operating systems install fine on desktop motherboards and this is a valid requirement for developers, testers, support and education, or simply running a server workstation so why on earth does Intel block installation?
We have never had any driver issues with AMD based systems when installing Windows server versions.
Equally the motherboard manufacturers could make the changes for their OEM driver downloads to at least install.
Thanks to community posts like this we have solutions and thanks for taking the time to share this solution.
WOW, Thanks man
Thank you so much for relieving that terrible headache!!
You’re most welcome!
Legend! Worked a treat.
Thanks for the article!
Glad to read it helped you out!
Now my I219-V NIC works like a charm!
Thank you very much!
Happy to help!
Big thanks frome Russia
You are most welcome.
Hey, Any thought about Server 2019? I219B is not working, so I just thought somebody should have an idea.
Wow, this worked! Thank you so much.
Very very big thanks! 🙂
Thank you very much! Thank you for your support! Congratulations! Helped me here in Brazil !!!
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. I had recycled an old Z97 desktop to WIndows Server 2016 and was pulling my hair out over the lack of network driver support. You saved the day! Followed your instructions and it worked first time.
Happy to hear it worked.
The screenshot to select to disable driver signature enforcement is wrong, the wrong option is highlighted.
Thanks for the instructions, life saving!
Hello Didier and thanks you for your help to make that drivers works on WS16. \o/ It helps me a lot and i’ve learn somehing new that’s why i’m happy now o/
The interweb was built for posts like this!
Thank you so very much Didier, you saved me hours of time and pain. Thanks to you I’ve painlessly upgraded my Intel NUC with an I218-V from Windows 2012 R2 to Windows 2019.