Due to shortage of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 system was introduced with better security features. While it is enabled and present on Windows 7 & Vista computer, it is hardly used by any application or device as of now. So, you may disable IPv6 on the computer as this may result in better network performance and save CPU memory.
Temporary way to disable IPv6
Following procedure disables IPv6 feature for LAN and is temporary. It is enabled back, once you restart the computer.
1. Goto Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections.
2. Right click on ‘Local Area Connection’ & click ‘properties’ option.
3. Uncheck ‘Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
4. Click OK & close dialog box.
Permanent Registry method to disable IPv6
1. Click Start > Run and then type regedit in the run box. This will open the Registry editor window on your computer.
2. Now navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > services >TCPIP6 > Parameters key
3. Right click Parameters 7 then goto New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. New Value #1 will appear.
4. Double click ‘New Value’ & enter 0xffffffff in ‘value data’ text box and click OK button.
5. Restart your Windows PC. IPv6 will be permanently disabled on PC. You can re-enable IPV6 on the PC by deleting the newly created value as made through above above steps.
works just fine…thanks for the tip.
How to use program to uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6 without Permanent Registry.Thank you !
Type any one of the following values in the Value data: field to configure the IPv6 protocol to the desired state, and then click OK:
Type 0 to enable all IPv6 components. (Windows default setting)
Type 0xffffffff to disable all IPv6 components, except the IPv6 loopback interface. This value also configures Windows to prefer using Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) over IPv6 by modifying entries in the prefix policy table. For more information, see Source and Destination Address Selection.
Type 0x20 to prefer IPv4 over IPv6 by modifying entries in the prefix policy table.
Type 0x10 to disable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces (on both LAN and Point-to-Point Protocol [PPP] interfaces).
Type 0x01 to disable IPv6 on all tunnel interfaces. These include Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP), 6to4, and Teredo.
Type 0x11 to disable all IPv6 interfaces except for the IPv6 loopback interface.
Sorry but I cannot agree that this can disable the IPv6. I tried it but it doesn’t work.
This information is incorrect.
0 is the default setting for enabling IPv6 not disabling it.
FF, 0xFF, or 000000FF is the setting to disable all IPv6
This link (below) gives slightly different instructions about what I should enter to disable IPv6. Can anyone enlighten me on what EXACTLY I should do to disable the component? Thanks!
support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
reserved IP addresses still take up space because they cannot be used, and there is (in FACT) a shortage of IPs
good article, thanks for posting
There is no shortage of IPs, it’s a myth. Check your facts. Ask yourself why there are so many unused blocks of addresses.