If you cannot see your drives during Windows installation, you need the ZIP file to extract the drivers manually. You cannot use the .exe installer for this specific task.
You might ask, “Why is the driver distributed as a .zip file and not a simple .exe installer?”
After extraction, you’ll see:
This is a valid strategy, but it comes with trade-offs.
While Intel previously provided a direct (often called F6flpy ), the official download is now typically a .exe installer (like SetupRST.exe ). To use it during a fresh Windows install, you must manually extract the driver files into a format that the Windows Setup environment can read. Step 1: Download the Driver
Pay attention to the "Platforms" supported. If you are on an Intel 12th Gen system, downloading a driver meant for Intel 9th Gen will not work for VMD.