Windows 11 does not Officially Support Intel's IRST

Regardless of whether we hate it or like it Windows 11 does not officially support Intel's IRST.

Intel has made a statement concerning this declaring that this is due to Windows 11 new security measures and it would seem that Intel no longer supports its own product as well.

To add more icing to the cake, Intel issued a "replacement" app for Windows users who insist on keeping IRST.

There is a problem with this app however. The app was specifically designed for Optane users and, as many here already know, Optane was also discontinued by Intel.

In fact, since the advent of Windows 11 Intel has been dropping many of their popular features such as TBT, TBMT, Optane, and IRST (except for Intel's own line of NUC PCs). Those who use Intel's sorry excuse for a replacement app may likely discover the following:

It may look okay on the surface until you dig around a little. You don't have to dig deep. The original IRST ap would allow you to generate various soft RAID arrays from scratch without any danger of losing your data. You could in effect, expand your volume simply by adding a new hard drive without having to rewrite the data on one of the drives. This was an especially handy feature of the IRST software. Alas, the Intel Optane and Memory Storage Management app doesn't exactly boast the same features, and, for all intents and purposes, this application is obsolete because Optane is obsolete.



Even though the NVMe memory upon which the operating system for Windows 11 was installed is listed in the first picture you can see in this second picture that there is no supported controller available for this Optane memory. Interestingly, this is an Intel Optane product. The reason for this is because Intel relinquished support for Optane and flipped the task of providing controllers to another group called Solidigm. It involved a huge settlement well over 50 million dollars. That aside, I think we can safely agree that IRST is vast becoming a thing of the past regardless of whether Intel continues to reserve it for their NUC PCs.




Just thought I would share this information as some might still find it helpful in explaining why the IRST application isn't what it used to be or why it no longer functions correctly.

RIP IRST

Intel no longer will produce NUCs.

intel is not making optane not because of windows 11 but mainly because it’s partner, micron, quit manufacturing optane memory.

I strongly suspect that “optane” nvme you are talking about is indeed not optane memory. It is standard nand memory with a small amount of xpoint (optane) cache. This hybrid requires the irst driver to work at all.

The irst / optane drivers are just optane drivers bundled with rst drivers. Just because optane is defunct doesn’t mean they are dead or won’t work.

The EOL announcement is for a limited set of Intel hardware:


So don't panic

I find the matter too enervating to dispute anymore. I know what I read on Intel's website and they pointed directly to security measures made by Microsoft as the reason for discontinuing these features. No, it doesn't exactly mean that all the Optane hardware is dead or won't work. It certainly can mean that much of it is compromised and obsolete. There's a reason why Intel is describing Optane as being "formerly Intel". All Optane is now in the hands of Solidigm to do whatever they wish with it. The exchange was what? 55 Million or so? For all intents and purposes Optane is history.

As for IRST I spent over 12 hours today to get my interface to work on a newly installed operating system. It lasted about ten minutes before it got terminated and that OS wasn't installed on Optane silicon. I suspect it might have been due to some microcode compliments of you-know-who. IRST might still be working on NUCs but I sure can't get it to work on my ASUS platform anymore. It dies on reboot. The service is discontinued.

Well I am using it fine. Just because you are having issues doesn't mean it is discontinued. Certainly optane is dead though - has been for some time.

Can you post a link to the intel article you are talking about? Thanks


It is still supported according to this, except 7th gen or earlier, for which the legacy RST software needs to be used and will no longer be updated. The Optane and Storage management (including RST) will still be supported and updated.

geneo said:

Well I am using it fine. Just because you are having issues doesn't mean it is discontinued. Certainly optane is dead though - has been for some time.

Can you post a link to the intel article you are talking about? Thanks


It is still supported according to this, except 7th gen or earlier, for which the legacy RST software needs to be used and will no longer be updated. The Optane and Storage management (including RST) will still be supported and updated.

End-Of-Life (EOL) Announcement for the Intel® Rapid Storage...

Intel® RST and Intel® Optane™ Memory applications have reached EOL and won’t be updated. A new application will replace both for newer Intel RST® driver versions.

www.intel.com

Click to expand...

Yes. For me it is discontinued. I'm aware of that announcement and I have already posted pictures of Intel's answer for it here. Definitely not the same thing. So either the announcement from Intel is erroneous or, as it says, "Intel®RST and Intel®Optane™ Memory applications have reached EOL and won't be updated." I suppose they can call it whatever they want since it's their baby, but it isn't the same thing. Wait. Am I disputing this? I thought I stated I wouldn't be disputing this.

Anyway, I'm not reading this all over again:

I had to load IRST on thumb drive because clean 11 install could not find any drives. It worked and laptop flys now.

I was stumped for days and you guys solved it for me. Thanks.

Disable IRST/VMD in bios if not using intel optane. Then the system wont need IRST.

Scannerman said:

Yes. For me it is discontinued. I'm aware of that announcement and I have already posted pictures of Intel's answer for it here. Definitely not the same thing. So either the announcement from Intel is erroneous or, as it says, "Intel®RST and Intel®Optane™ Memory applications have reached EOL and won't be updated." I suppose they can call it whatever they want since it's their baby, but it isn't the same thing. Wait. Am I disputing this? I thought I stated I wouldn't be disputing this.

Anyway, I'm not reading this all over again:

Windows 11 Security Starts with an Intel Hardware Security Foundation whitepaper

With Windows, and now Windows 11, hardware and software work together for protection, as Microsoft and Intel continue a long-standing co-engineering commitment to platform performance, stability, an...

www.intel.com

Click to expand...

As I stated the EOL refers to specific or old Intel hardware, it is not a sweeping EOL and iRST is not dead.

What does the link you posted have anything to do with iRST? It does not refer to iRST, storage, Optane or anything relevant to what you have stated. If there is something relevant, I would really like to know as I am interested in this topic.

geneo said:

As I stated the EOL refers to specific or old Intel hardware, it is not a sweeping EOL and iRST is not dead.

What does the link you posted have anything to do with iRST? It does not refer to iRST, storage, Optane or anything relevant to what you have stated. If there is something relevant, I would really like to know as I am interested in this topic.

Click to expand...

Evidently I mistook your meaning. I thought you were referring to Intel dropping some of its features because of security features supported by the consortium. You are free to research this yourself. EOL literally means end of life. That means it's done. It's over. It's history. That the hardware will be rendered old is a no-brainer. Perhaps that is why they had to rename the EOL replacement. I do find interesting that they would use the word "Optane" in the ap replacement considering that Optane is definitely EOL. So... IRST for Optane (formerly Intel) isn't dead right?

Snowfan said:

I had to load IRST on thumb drive because clean 11 install could not find any drives. It worked and laptop flys now.

I was stumped for days and you guys solved it for me. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Glad to be of some assistance. :)

Scannerman said:

Evidently I mistook your meaning. I thought you were referring to Intel dropping some of its features because of security features supported by the consortium. You are free to research this yourself. EOL literally means end of life. That means it's done. It's over. It's history. That the hardware will be rendered old is a no-brainer. Perhaps that is why they had to rename the EOL replacement. I do find interesting that they would use the word "Optane" in the ap replacement considering that Optane is definitely EOL. So... IRST for Optane (formerly Intel) isn't dead right?

Click to expand...

It has been optane and storage management for some time. And as I mentioned, the EOL notice for specific old hardware. Companies can’t support old stuff forever, but intel will still make the software available for old hardware.

Intel is still supporting RST through the new app and associated drivers.

There is the new optane and storage app because Microsoft is requiring that the management part of all drivers be a windows 11 app and not bundled in as vendor specific apps with the drivers. The same is true, for example, with NVIDIA - the nvidia control panel is now a windows app made available separately from the nvidia drivers.

The reason I asked for the link is because that was the basis behind your original post and I never heard about anything like that, so it would be good if you could post some source because your whole post is based on that.

Intel suddenly lumps in RST with Optane in an ap. Then it announces that support for Optane is done. History. EOL. No, not just for older systems. For ever. In fact, they refer to Optane as "formerly Intel". I'm not going to do your research for you. I can't make you read the white papers. That RST still works in some systems still means precious little. Support is gone. You use it at your own risk. I just installed a fresh OS and put RST on it and it worked fine until I updated the OS. Suddenly RST doesn't work. That's due to something called microcode. I've provided enough information on this page and others to support my statements. Why would Intel replace an ap with an EOL (formerly Intel) Optane ap? Optane isn't Intel anymore so anything using the name Optane isn't Intel. Optane is Solidigm. So it stands to reason that Intel doesn't officially support RST in Windows 11 if the ap for RST in Win 11 belongs to Solidigm and Optane. Can't have it both ways. Either it is EOL or it isn't.

I really do wish that the software for the old hardware still worked like it once did. The only way I can make that happen is if I refuse to even do some of the earliest updates. So I might be able to make it work if I install Windows 7, for example, and then immediately turn off the updates to avoid the microcode that kills RST. The basis behind my original post is in the white papers I shared here. One does not need a crystal ball to see where this is going.

Well I cannot help but saying you are making baseless claims. This is my last post here, I am done

1. Intel lumped Optane and RST management into one storage management app because it made sense to - they are both storage supported by Intel. They were combined a long while before Optane hardware (X-point) was discontinued , and the UWP app still supports existing Optane hardware and current IRST hardware.
2. You are providing no references to back your claims up and are resorting to ad hominem argument that I don't read white papers for which you have provided no references.
3. You claim support is gone with no evidence. That is simply not true. In fact the one reference you provided refutes this.
4. Optane is the Intel branding for the X-point technology. It still is. That is BS to say that "anything using the name Optane isn't Intel". It is also untrue that "Optane is Solidigm" and your argument that The app belongs to Solidigm is false. It is an Intel App. Intel sold their SSD hardware to SK-Hynix/Solidigm, not their Optane branding nor the Optane X-point hardware technology since that is hardare discontinued.
5. The software app is not EOL. Intel is still supporting it as stated in the one link you provided. Vendors drop support for old hardware in their software all of the time. The support for that hardware is declared EOL - that doesn't mean the software is EOL.

1. So it makes sense to lump in something that is allegedly not EOL (even though it has been kind of sort of announced EOL but more specifically for older hardware but not necessarily) with something that is definitely 100% EOL and name it with the same name as something that is absolutely EOL to say that it isn't? This makes no sense to me. Perhaps I'm just too intellectually challenged to comprehend the concept here.

2. Evidently you didn't read those white papers and I don't really blame you. I boiled it down to something that was stated on another one of their web pages where it was stated more succinctly and no, I'm not going to go looking for that page again because what I have posted already is suffice.

3. Let me get this right. Intel states (and I quote) "Intel®RST and Intel®Optane™ Memory applications have reached EOL and won't be updated." doesn't really mean that Intel®RST and Intel®Optane™ Memory applications have reached EOL and won't be updated. Right. Got it.

4. Intel sold Optane to Solidigm for over 55 mill. Are you aware of this? So to whom does Optane belong if Solidigm owns Optane? So if Intel sold the brand name Optane to Solidigm and they're still using the name I smell a lawsuit in the making UNLESS some agreement was made prior to the sale that Intel would still use the said brand name. IN which case that would make both of us right.

5. Software for Optane is support for Optane. Who supports Optane? According to Intel Solidigm does. Intel literally describes Optane as being "formerly Intel". Formerly means no longer.

Can't have it both ways. I suggest you do more research on this.