HowTo Disable IPv6 in Windows Vista and 7
Microsoft includes native support for IPv6 and is enabled by default since in Windows Vista. IPv6 is the new computer address protocol that will eventually replace IPv4, although, like the metric system the United States seems never to actually adopt. Unless you network has a specific requirement for IPv6 you can and perhaps should disable it.
You cannot disable IPv6 by disabling the protocol on each of your network interfaces. The proper way to disable IPv6 is to disable it by modification of the windows registry. Another option is to use a set of utilities by Microsoft to enable, disable and modify the behavior of IPv6 networking in windows. A utility that will automatically disable or re-enable IPv6 or its components is available from Microsoft.com.
The argument in support of disabling IPv6 in Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7 considers the factors of resource usage and network security. There are also minor glitches dealing with ICMP broadcast and IPv6 on an IPv4 network in Windows. Since in all likelihood you are not using it then lets go ahead and disable it.
Contents
Option 1: Manual IPv6 Disable Method
Disable it in both places. That is 1) the Local Area Connection Properties and 2) the Windows Registry. This will completely disable it.
Windows Local Area Connection Properties GUI Interface
Press the Windows Key + R and in the text field type: ncpa.cpl
Right click on the correct network interface icon and click "Properties."
Uncheck "Internet Protocol Version 6″ and click on "OK"
Windows Registry Editor Modification Procedure
- Open regedit.exe
- goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, services, TCPIP6 and Parameters.
- Right click on Parameters and select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the new value "DisabledComponents" and hit Enter.
- Right click on the new DisabledComponents value you just created and select Modify.
- Set the value of DisabledComponents to "FFFFFFFF" and click OK. That is a series of 8 F characters.
For Windows 7 however doing it on NIC properties should be enough.
Run this from command prompt
reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip6\parameters /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d 255
and then reboot.
If you want to see how the key entry would appear in a reg file:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TCPIP6\Parameters] “DisabledComponents”=dword:ffffffff
If you are familiar with creating text reg files you can use this method as an alternative to manually opening regedit.exe and creating a key.
Option 2: Disable IPv6 via Downloadable Utility
Microsoft provides a file called: MicrosoftFixit50409.msi
Running that program will disable IPv6. It is available from Microsoft.com. The folks at Microsoft move stuff around on their web site more than Walmart moves store items. Last we knew the link was here:
- Automatically disable or re-enable IPv6 or its components Knowledge Base ID: 929852
Windows Versions: Vista (and some later versions). DOES NOT APPLY TO XP.
They offer utilities to do all of the following:
- Disable IPv6
- Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies
- Disable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces
- Disable IPv6 on all tunnel interfaces
- Disable IPv6 on nontunnel interfaces (except the loopback) and on IPv6 tunnel interface
- Re-enable IPv6
- Prefer IPv6 over IPv4 in prefix policies
- Re-enable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces
- Re-enable IPv6 on all tunnel interfaces
- Re-enable IPv6 on nontunnel interfaces and on IPv6 tunnel interfaces
