Yeo Kheng Meng releases xHCI98 driver adding USB4 and Thunderbolt support to Windows 98 SE
Developer Yeo Kheng Meng announced the experimental xHCI98 v3.0.0.0 driver, which enables generic USB 3.x, USB4 and Thunderbolt 3/4 host controllers on Windows 98 SE and later legacy Windows versions up to Windows 7. The driver replaces the built‑in USB stack, adds a second driver (xhciuas.sys) for UAS storage and a third driver (xhcicm.sys) for Thunderbolt docks and NVMe enclosures, allowing…
Key points
- Yeo Kheng Meng released xHCI98 v3.0.0.0, adding USB4 and Thunderbolt 3/4 support to Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.
- The driver replaces Windows USB stack and adds xhciuas.sys for UAS storage and xhcicm.sys for Thunderbolt docks and NVMe enclosures.
- Meng built the driver with AI assistance from Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5.5, and Codex GPT 6 Astra, noting bugs may appear.
Meng built most of the code on Intel hardware and openly notes the project was a solo effort “with AI assistance, so bugs are not unexpected.” He used Claude Fable 5.1 for planning, Claude Opus 5.5 for coding, and Codex GPT 6 Astra as an adversarial reviewer. A demo video shows a 2020 ThinkPad P14s Gen 1 successfully handling multiple USB devices. The developer provides a detailed blog post with compatibility notes, installation methods, and tuning tips for users who want to try the driver on their retro PCs.
Model pages: Claude Fable 5.1 → · Claude Opus 5.5 →
Windows 98 SE users get a Thunderbolt 4 driver, thanks to AI assistance
Tom's Hardware · 20 October 2026
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