To proceed you will need to have already created a Bootable USB from a Windows 7 Installation ISO using Rufus. The USB tested was Created Fresh from the Microsoft Windows Installation ISO.
You may need to however Load Intel F6 Storage Controller Drivers provided by your OEM during installation to see the SSD like I did when I tested this on a Dell OptiPlex 7040 and Dell OptiPlex 3040 6th Generation Intel Skylake System with a NVMe SSD. The Windows USB Installation Tool adds only the USB 3.0 drivers and the hotfixes associated for NVMe SSDs. The Intel USB 3.0 utility was superseded by the more reliable Windows USB Installation Tool by Gigabyte which despite being Gigabyte branded can be used on up to 6th Generation Intel based hardware from other OEMs such as Dell, HP and Lenovo.ħth Generation Intel based hardware and later are not supported by Intel or Microsoft on Windows 7. Intel have been dropped a large number of Windows 7 drivers from their servers now that Windows 7 has reached end of life. The Intel USB 3.0 Creator Utility was a tool for adding USB 3.0 driver support to Windows 7 Installation Media. Windows 7 Reached End of Life in January 2020.
