"This operation requires an interactive window station" when trying to install a Qlogic SFP+ NIC in Windows 11

Question

hello,

i have the latest version of windows 11. trying to install SFP+ NICs and i keep getting the "This operation requires an interactive window station" error. when i try using the "add drivers" function in device manager, i get this error: "qlnd6x64.inf: Failed to install driver on devices. Error 0x000005B3: This operation requires an interactive window station."

i can see that the driver gets copied to the "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository" directory and the qlxgnd64.sys file goes to the "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" directory. so it looks like the permissions for those folders work fine.

i think this has something to do with a "fix" microsoft implemented to resolve a printer vulnerability and now these new measures prevent windows 11 from using some drivers that it doesn't like. including this admittedly old Qlogic driver

what i need to know is how to disable this driver check and just let me install what i want to install.

some notes before anyone posts anything obvious that doesn't help:

-it's NOT a driver problem. this driver works fine in windows 10x64. i even tried setting up a fresh copy of windows 10 with this driver installed and working then upgrading to windows 11. windows removed this driver specifically and left everything else intact, then wouldn't let me put it back in.

-it's NOT a hardware problem. i have tried several of these NICs that i know work perfectly fine, in 4 different computers using at least 7 brand new WD SN770 and SN850X SSDs.

-it's NOT a "corrupt" install problem. sfc scan and DISM image restore will not fix this. i have tried several fresh installations.

-it's probably not a permissions issue because, again, i can see that the drivers are copied to the DriverStore and drivers folders. I also can't imagine permissions going bad on several fresh windows 11 installs.

thanks.

Answer 1

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query

If you are getting the error "This operation requires an interactive window station" when trying to install a Qlogic SFP+ NIC in Windows 11, the most likely cause is that the Qlogic NIC driver is not compatible with Windows 11. To resolve this issue, you will need to contact Qlogic's customer support and ask them to provide you with an updated driver that is compatible with Windows 11.

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