It used to be mostly about corporate stuff before 2010, not anymore. Although it could, under certain circumstances, lead to some performance increase (maybe some bug got fixed or so), it's not the expected outcome. No matter the performance, it does have a reason to exist and get updated even for regular users due to it's connection to system clocks, silicon workaround, fan control, power management, rapid start technology and so on. Since a lot of users have been asking this question lately (what's the benefit for regular users), I have rewritten the introduction paragraph as follows. Hopefully that will clear the air at some extend.

Intel MEI Driver v11.6.0.1010 MEI-Only Installer
Intel MEI Driver v11.6.0.1010 (Windows 8.x & Windows 10) INF for manual installation
Intel MEI Driver v11.6.0.1010 (Windows XP & Windows 7) INF for manual installation

Note: We don't currently know what the actual difference is between 11.5 and 11.6 drivers. You should install 11.5 drivers for now.

Yes, 11.6.0.1010 is signed by Intel, so does not work with Windows 10 anniversary update and secure boot enabled.

@ Pacman, gpvecchi

That driver is kind of old (June) so before the new Windows 10 version. Probably that's why. It should still work for anything else (Windows XP to Windows 10 November Update). The real question is: what the hell is 11.6 firmware and drivers? The 11.6 drivers have three extra supported devices. It seems there are two new driver/firmware 11.x branches. I thought that maybe one is for 200-series whereas the other both 100/200-series but it doesn't really make sense. Probably something else.

@ rafel

The Flash Descriptor (FD) region of the SPI/BIOS image you loaded at MEA is set to locked. I your current SPI/BIOS chip's FD region is unlocked for instance, upon flashing this BIOS it will get locked. If your SPI/BIOS chip's FD region is already locked, nothing will change.

Microsoft has changed their driver signing policy, and it is enforced in the Win 10 anniversary update, non WHQL kernel mode driver are blocked, IF you have Secure Boot enabled.
If you want to install non WHQL KM drivers it has to be Disabled.

This is for a Clean install of the anniversary update version, if you upgrade an earlier Win 10, you can still install non WHQL KM drivers though.

But yes, the 11.6 drivers are a bit odd.

Intel ME 11.6 Consumer PCH-H Firmware v11.6.0.1102
Intel ME 11.6 Consumer PCH-LP Firmware v11.6.0.1102
Intel ME 11.6 Corporate PCH-LP Firmware v11.6.0.1069
Intel ME 11.5 Corporate PCH-LP Firmware v11.5.1.1006



Warning: KabyLake is not released yet. For research only!

MEA: 11.5.1.1006_COR_LP_XX_UKPDM_PRD_RGN_F63E64032332BF16D2AA614BA5F6134A0891338F_SHA1

Note 1: We don't currently know what the actual difference is between 11.5 and 11.6 firmware. Based on accompanying firmware (GbE, Microcode), it may (personal guess) be that 11.5 is for 100/200-series whereas 11.6 is 200-series only. We'll find out in the near future either way.

Note 2: MEA 1.6.1 (26-27/08/2016) or later will be required for 11.6 support so there's no point in giving the DB entries for the two 11.6 firmware found so far.

Ok, great. So the .inf comments from Intel are full of crap. 8-series with ME9.0 are also supported. Thx for the report SoniX.

It does not work with 100-series, i have tested it, i integrated it with FIT, because FWUpdate gave an error.
In FIT i got an error message about ICC settings, and the settings were not available, after flashing the MB would not boot at all.

So it seems 11.5 FW is probably what we want.