Windows Server 2016 on NUC7i3BNH: struggling with drivers

[dennisgorelik]

I bought NUC7i3BNH.
Then I tried to install Windows Server 2016 Standard on that NUC.
Windows Server installation itself was successful, but several drivers, including Network Adapters(!) and "Multimedia Audio Controller" - did not install.

Search for drivers brought me to:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/intel-nuc-boards/000005628.html
where to my amazement I discovered that most of NUCs do NOT support Windows Server OS.

Further research pointed me to a hack that allows to manually use Windows 10 drivers on Windows Server 2016.
It goes like this:
1) Open C:\install\LAN_Server2016_64_22\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf
2) From this section:
[Intel.NTamd64.10.0.1]

copy these 3 lines:
===
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8&SUBSYS_00011179
===

into this section:
[Intel.NTamd64.10.0]

3) Then turn off drivers checks:
bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING OFF
bcdedit /set NOINTEGRITYCHECKS ON

4) And finally install the driver:
pnputil.exe -i -a C:\install\LAN_Server2016_64_22\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf

After that Network (and Internet) started working on my new NUC.


But I do not understand - why Intel does not allow these drivers under Windows Server 2016 by default?

Update: Windows Server 2016 on NUC7i3BNH struggles - part 2.