Whiat is  IPv6?

It’s an Internet Protocol version which is designed to replace IPv4. IPv4 is the first implementation of IP addressing techniques and it is still in dominant use currently. Internet Protocol is an Internet Layer protocol, for packet-switched inter-networks. The reason for the redesign of Internet Protocol is the soon to reach exhaustion stage of IPv4 addresses. IPv6 was created in December 1998 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and since then it is being used in all the networks for addressing a network host or client. IPv6 has a much larger address space than IPv4 which results by the use of a 128-bit address instead of just 32 bits used by IPv4 and gives a new address space of 2128 addresses. This new addressing schema provides flexibility in allocating addresses and routing the traffic and eliminates any primary need for network address translation (NAT). IPv6 also has new features which simplify aspects of address assignment and network renumbering when changing Internet connectivity providers. IPv6 architecture has integrated network security which makes it more reliable and more secure protocol for IP addressing.

Disabling the components

In order to disable certain components of the Internet Protocol Version 6 in Windows Vista, Windows7 or Windows Server 2008 follow the steps given below but please note that serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore ensure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. If registry modification leads to any problems restore the registry backup.
Steps:

  1. Open Start Menu and then open the Run Box, In Run box type “Regedit” and hit Enter to open the registry editor. System might require administrators password for opening the registry editor.
  2. Go through the registry tree in the left pane of editor and find the following location:
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\
  3. When you will click on the key given above it will open the values in it in the right pane. Look for DisabledComponents value in the right pane. If this value is not present then you need to create it manually by right clicking and selecting New Dword(32-bit).
  4. Either by double clicking or by making a new dword you will get a box for typing its value and you can type any of the following values basis your requirements. Along with every entry i have mentioned the FixIt link provided by Microsoft for making the changes automatically. All you have to do is to visit this link, download the msi file and execute it.

The following options will need to be entered in order to get the desired outcome.

  • Type 0 if you want to enable all the components of IPv6 (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9732129)
  • Type 0xffffffff if you want to disable all the components of IPv6 but the loopback interface.
  • Type 0x20 for enabling the usage of IPv4 in prefix policies (Fixit link http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9732130)
  • Type 0x10 for disabling the native interface of IPv6 (FixIt Link http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9732131)
  • Type 0x01 for disabling the tunnel interface of IP version 6 (FixIt Link http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9732984)
  • Type 0x11 for disabling all the interfaces of IP version 6 but the loopback interface (FixIt Link http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9732985)