Force installing incompatible .inf driver in Windows Server 2019 Core

Question

I'm trying to install Server 2019 Core on my 6th generation NUC. Although the install goes fine, I'm reminded of the 'good old days' when it boots without any network connection.

Now I have the correct driver (I219-V, dated October 2018 for Win10x64 containing the right VEN-DEV combination) that will work fine if I force the install using the GUI. But Windows considers it an incompatible driver and as such it won't install if I just supply the driver.

Is there any way, through the CLI or PoSh to force the driver to install on a specific device?

UPDATE:

I also tried simply adding two lines into the inf file (since it already contains all the necessary instructions, they just disabled them), but the it becomes unsigned, so now I need to find a way to install unsigned drivers.

Answer 1

The fast way of installing the driver for the i219-V NIC is quite simple.

1. Fetch the latest greatest PROSetx64.exe from Intel with Server 2019 drivers for the i219-V adapter.

2. Unzip the .exe file and find the folder with the actual driver files named PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS68

3. Do a manual install of the drivers:

   • (Rightclick Update Driver in Device Manager
   • "Browse my computer for computer software”, “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer”
   • Select “Network Adapter”

   • Select “Have Disk…” and point to the folder mentioned above.

   • Now select i219-LM (the i219-V is not shown)

This way you don't even have to break the driver signing on your server.