The USB driver scene on windows is confusing and sometimes even dangerous. I've seen some students unable to use Arduino clones on windows when they worked perfectly on Linux. I then found this: https://learnarduinonow.com/2014/10/24/does-windows-ftdi-upd... (TLDR: windows auto-installs a driver that will brick your device if they think it is "counterfeit") and decided plugging something other than a storage device (if you trust the system to be free from viruses) on a windows machine is something that should be done as a last resort only.