Note: This guide involves manually editing driver inf files and is for lab use only, modifying drivers is not supported by either Intel, Lenovo or Microsoft, so use at your own risk. I’ve used this method on my Lenovo P1, and it worked for me ! That said, your mileage may vary.

Remember, this is NOT Supported by Lenovo, or Intel, or Microsoft and especially not me. Due to the aforementioned lack of support from this modification, use at your own risk.

Introduction

My home lab (which I use for creating all those step-by-step guides about SCCM, Intune or PKI) runs Hyper V and it’s an awesomely fantastic Lenovo P1 installed with Windows Server 2019.

It originally shipped with Windows 10 Professional for Workstations but I installed Windows Server 2019 on it to avail of the built-in support for Data-Deduplication. Data-deduplication allows you to squeeze lots of data into a limited space by only taking one copy of a block of data that is repeated more than once and then indexing it, thereby saving lot’s of storage space.

This screenshot should give you an idea of how efficient data-deduplication is. 3.39TB of data taking up only 359GB of space. Amazing.

So data-deduplication was enough of a reason to install Windows Server 2019, but the downside was some functionality of the Lenovo P1 would be lost, namely Thunderbolt.

Problem

When you install Windows Server 2019 on a Lenovo P1, and then proceed to install all the drivers either manually or via the Lenovo System Update tool, you are left with a mostly complete system, the exception is that Thunderbolt won’t work and the drivers won’t install (even though System Update detects them and downloads the Windows 10 drivers).

The problem is that Intel have blocked the drivers from installing on Windows Server 2019 and that becomes apparent by looking in Device Manager after installing all available drivers for the Lenovo P1.

In the screenshot below you can see 2 devices listed under Other Devices which have issues installing drivers, the first Base System Device is the Thunderbolt device, whereas the Unknown Device is a Bluetooth adapter which I’m not concerned with yet.

Solution

You can get around the drivers not installing by hacking the INF file for the Thunderbolt driver and by instructing the operating system that you are going to install an unsigned driver.

In a nutshell, this guide modifies the INF file to prevent it from installing a service and to prevent it from trying to install the setup.msi file (which is in itself hard locked to not install on anything but Windows 10), therefore some functionality may be missing from Thunderbolt as a result. In addition, the INF file is modified to allow installation on Windows Server 2019.

So let’s look at that process.

Note: I got the inspiration to attempt this process via the following blog post where Didier Van Hoye hacked the INF drivers (also from Intel) to get the  network cards working on his server operating system. Kudos to Didier for the info.

Step 1. Get the drivers

You can download the Thunderbolt driver directly from Lenovo here or from Intel here. Once you have the drivers extract them somewhere useful like C:\Drivers\Thunderbolt

Note: The drivers from Intel and Lenovo are the same as you can see via the DriverVer string in the associated INF file.

DriverVer=05/16/2018,17.4.77.13

Step 2. Identify the HardwareID

In device manager, right click on one of the devices that needs drivers and click on Properties. Select the Details tab and in the drop down menu select Hardware IDs. Make note of the value.

In the screenshot below you can see that the hardware ID in this case was PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15EB&…

And for comparison purposes I’m showing you the same hardware id highlighted in the actual driver INF file. But how can we be sure that this is the file to use.

Step 3. Identify the INF file

Use the following PowerShell script to identify the INF file to edit. You need to modify the two variables to match your environment.

The $DriverPath variable should point to the folder where you extracted the ThunderBolt Drivers.

The $HardwareID variable is composed of the VendorId (Intels Vendor Id which is 8086) and DeviceId (15EB) and should match the ven_xxxx&dev_xxxx from device manager.

In other words, only replace the values above that I’ve marked in red.

<# search for device hardware id in files to find the INF file
# niall brady windows-noob.com 2019/6/25
#>

$DriverPath = "C:\DRIVERS\Thunderbolt\Lenovo"
$HardwareID = "ven_8086&dev_15EB"
Get-ChildItem -Path $DriverPath -recurse | Select-String -pattern $HardwareID | group path | select name

Once done, run the script and it will list the INF file you need to edit, in this particular example it’s C:\DRIVERS\Thunderbolt\Lenovo\tbt100x.inf.

Step 4. Edit the inf file

In the INF file identified above, locate the following line

[Manufacturer]
%Intel% = Thunderbolt,NTamd64.10.0.1

And append the following to it

,NTamd64.10.0

so it becomes

[Manufacturer]
%Intel% = Thunderbolt,NTamd64.10.0.1,NTamd64.10.0

Next, locate the following [DestinationDirs] section and rem out the Msi_Dir line by placing a semi-colon in front of it.

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir          = 12
TbtCoInstallerCopyFiles = 11
Msi_Dir                 = 24,\Intel\Thunderbolt

so it becomes like this:

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir          = 12
TbtCoInstallerCopyFiles = 11
;Msi_Dir                 = 24,\Intel\Thunderbolt

Next copy the entire section [Thunderbolt.NTamd64.10.0.1] highlighted below

[Thunderbolt.NTamd64.10.0.1]
; DisplayName Section Device Id
; ----------- ------- ---------
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc1575% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1575&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc1577% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1577&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15BF% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15BF&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15D2% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D2&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15D9% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D9&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15E8% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E8&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15EB% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15EB&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DC% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DC&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DD% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DD&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DE% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DE&CC_0880

And paste it directly after the first block, and then edit the  heading of the second pasted block so that it reads [Thunderbolt.NTamd64.10.0] like so (placed directly under the [Thunderbolt.NTamd64.10.0.1] section.

[Thunderbolt.NTamd64.10.0]
; DisplayName Section Device Id
; ----------- ------- ---------
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc1575% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1575&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc1577% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1577&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15BF% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15BF&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15D2% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D2&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15D9% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D9&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15E8% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15E8&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15EB% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15EB&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DC% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DC&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DD% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DD&CC_0880
%TbtBusDrv_DeviceDesc15DE% = TbtBusDrv_Device, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DE&CC_0880

Locate the [TbtBusDrv_Device.NT] section and rem out the CopyFiles = Msi_Dir line by placing a semi-colon in front of it.

[TbtBusDrv_Device.NT]
CopyFiles = Drivers_Dir
CopyFiles = Msi_Dir

so it becomes like this:

[TbtBusDrv_Device.NT]
CopyFiles = Drivers_Dir
;CopyFiles = Msi_Dir

Locate the [TbtBusDrv_Device.NT.HW] section and rem out the AddReg = MSI.reg line by placing a semi-colon in front of it.

[TbtBusDrv_Device.NT.HW]
AddReg = MSI.reg
AddReg = Security.reg

so it becomes like this:

[TbtBusDrv_Device.NT.HW]
;AddReg = MSI.reg
AddReg = Security.reg

Finally, locate the [TbtCoInstallerReg] section and rem out the HKR,,CoInstallers32,0x00010000,”tbtcoinx_17_4_77_13.dll, CoDeviceInstall”  line by placing a semi-colon in front of it.

[TbtCoInstallerReg]
HKR,,CoInstallers32,0x00010000,"tbtcoinx_17_4_77_13.dll, CoDeviceInstall"

so it becomes like this:

[TbtCoInstallerReg]
;HKR,,CoInstallers32,0x00010000,"tbtcoinx_17_4_77_13.dll, CoDeviceInstall"

Save the file and close it.

Note: If you attempt to install the modified inf without having completed the below steps you’ll get a HASH error as shown here.

Step 5. Restart in Advanced mode

In Windows Settings, select Update & Security and click on Recovery, select Restart Now. Do this locally on the computer (Do not try this via RDP as the Restart Now option will not appear in RDP).

Step 6. Disable Driver Signature Enforcement

Select Troubleshoot from the menu.

Then select Startup Settings.

Click RestartAnd in the Advanced Boot Options, select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement

The computer will boot into Windows.

Step 7. Load the edited inf in Device Manager.

In Device Manager, select the device you want to update, and choose Update Driver.

Choose Browse my computer for driver software,

And point to the path of the edited INF file from before.

When prompted choose Install this driver software anyway.

And if everything goes according to plan, it will install.

Note: If you get a Fatal error message, then you most likely  still have remnants of the INF file pointing to one or more files contained within the setup.msi, and they need to be removed.

And the new device can be viewed in Device Manager.

Result !

It works ! I’ve got a USB c to B flash drive connected and I can read/write to the device at speeds that look impressive enough !

I’d be very interested to hear how this works for you (or not), please let me know by commenting below.

cheers !

Niall

Recommended reading

• https://www.niallbrady.com/2019/02/09/installing-windows-server-2019-on-a-lenovo-p1-for-data-dedup-my-rough-notes/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/general-syntax-rules-for-inf-files
• https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2017/06/19/installing-intel-i211-i217v-i218v-i219v-drivers-windows-server-2016-eufi-boot/