Complete Guide to Installing Windows Server 2025 on ZimaCube

Turning ZimaCube into a Windows server may sound like an unusual combination, but in practice, the experience is much better than expected.

Windows Server 2025 comes with a 180-day free evaluation period. It also provides GUI-based wizards for configuring AD, DNS, and DHCP, making the learning curve surprisingly smooth for users who are already familiar with the Windows ecosystem.

This guide documents the full installation process, especially how to manually get everything working when there is no official driver package available.

Use cases: This setup is suitable if you want to learn Windows Server, build an Active Directory domain controller, or run specific applications that require a native Windows environment. If you need GPU passthrough, nested virtualization, or want to run multiple Linux VMs at the same time, Proxmox is likely a better choice.

Step 1: Preparation

Download the following files in advance, preferably on another computer:

• Windows Server 2025 ISO: Choose a version with Desktop Experience. Otherwise, you will end up with only a command-line interface after installation.
• Intel i226-V 2.5GbE driver: Search for “Intel Ethernet Adapter Complete Driver Pack” on Intel’s official website and download the Windows 11 version.
• A USB flash drive, 8GB or larger: Used to create the bootable installation drive.
• A second USB flash drive: Used to store the driver files.
• Rufus: Used to create the bootable USB drive.

Key tip: Copy the Intel network driver to a separate USB drive in advance. During installation, the network adapter may not work. Without the driver, you will not be able to install or download anything. This is the most critical step in the entire process. Do not skip it.

Step 2: Create the Bootable USB Drive

1. Open Rufus.
2. Select the Windows Server 2025 ISO.
3. Select the target USB drive.
4. Set the partition scheme to GPT and the target system to UEFI.
5. Click Start and wait for the process to complete.

Step 3: Install the System

1. Insert the bootable USB drive into ZimaCube. Power it on and press F11 to boot from the USB drive.
2. Enter the Windows installation interface. The default language and keyboard settings are usually fine.
3. Important selection: On the edition selection screen, make sure to choose Windows Server 2025 Standard (Desktop Experience). The version with Desktop Experience includes the graphical user interface. The version without it is Server Core, which only gives you a black terminal window after installation.
4. Select the installation target disk. It is recommended to choose the motherboard-mounted NVMe drive. The original ZimaOS system disk will be overwritten.
5. Wait for the installation to complete. The system will reboot automatically.

After rebooting, you will enter the initial setup process:

• Set the Administrator password.
• No Microsoft account is required. The Server edition only requires a local password.

Step 4: The Driver Setup Challenge

This is the most tedious part of the entire process. After entering the desktop, open Device Manager, and you will likely see a long list of yellow exclamation marks, including the chipset, SM Bus Controller, and unnamed PCI devices.

The most critical issue is that although the two 2.5GbE ports may be detected, they may not be able to obtain an IP address.

The driver installation process can be divided into three steps.

4.1 Step One: Network Driver

This is the most important driver to install first.

1. Insert the USB drive that contains the driver files.
2. Open Device Manager and find the Ethernet controller with a yellow exclamation mark.
3. Right-click it and select Update driver → Browse my computer for drivers.
4. Point it to the Intel driver folder on the USB drive. Expand the folder until you reach the directory that contains the .inf files.
5. Click Next and wait for Windows to detect and install the driver.

Repeat the same process for both network ports. Once the driver is installed successfully, plug in the Ethernet cable, and DHCP should automatically assign an IP address.

Once the network is working, the rest becomes much easier.

4.2 Step Two: Intel Driver & Support Assistant

Open a browser and visit Intel’s official website to download Intel Driver & Support Assistant, also known as Intel DSA.

It will automatically scan the hardware and install most of the required drivers, including chipset and management engine drivers.

This step can resolve roughly 80% of the yellow exclamation marks.

4.3 Step Three: Windows Update Catalog

A few stubborn devices may remain, usually listed under Other devices. These need to be handled manually by searching for their hardware IDs in the Windows Update Catalog.

1. In Device Manager, right-click the unknown device and go to Properties → Details → Hardware Ids.
2. Copy the hardware ID, such as PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_125C.
3. Visit catalog.update.microsoft.com and paste the hardware ID into the search box.
4. Download the matching CAB file and extract it.
5. Return to Device Manager, right-click the device, select Update driver, and point it to the extracted folder.

You may need to repeat this process around 6–8 times. Plan for an afternoon.

Step 5: Configure Storage Spaces

After all drivers are installed, you can configure storage.

1. Open Server Manager → File and Storage Services → Storage Pools.
2. Create a new storage pool and add the six HDDs.
3. Create a virtual disk and choose Parity, similar to RAID 5, or Mirror, similar to RAID 1.
4. Format the volume and assign a drive letter.

The advantage of Storage Spaces is that it does not require a dedicated RAID card. Windows manages the disks directly, which is good enough for typical home use.

Featured

ZimaCube 2 Personal Cloud Home NAS

ZimaCube2

$799.00 - $2,499.00

Buy Now

Should You Do This?

This Windows Server route is suitable for users who:

• Already work within the Windows ecosystem and want to learn server administration skills
• Need Active Directory for domain management experiments
• Want a familiar Remote Desktop environment
• Feel that the 180-day evaluation period is enough for testing and learning

This setup is not suitable for users who:

• Need GPU passthrough for transcoding, since Hyper-V GPU passthrough is not ideal on consumer-grade hardware
• Want to run many Linux VMs, in which case Proxmox is the natural choice
• Do not want to spend an afternoon searching for drivers, in which case ZimaOS or Proxmox provides a more out-of-the-box experience

The most honest recommendation is to treat this as a learning experiment. After 180 days, you may have learned enough and decide to switch to Proxmox or return to ZimaOS. But the process itself—manually getting an enterprise-grade operating system running on non-standard hardware—is the most valuable part of the experience.