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Simple Way to Disable IPv6 in Windows Vista

Do you know how to disable IPv6 in Windows Vista? Do you know it’s enabled by default? It’s pretty simple actually! As I know some might even want to uninstall IPv6, but you won’t be able to do it as this is built-in feature in Vista kernel. Although IPv6 is developed with better security and aimed to overcome the shortage of IPv4 addresses, but there are several reasons why people still wish to disable this feature:

- Totally not going to use this IPv6 feature as it’s not that popular yet and don’t know how to use it
- Disabling this IPv6 feature can conserve Windows’ CPU and memory resources
- Better network performance with disabled IPv6 feature

Somehow there are still some disadvantages for disabling this IPv6 feature: you will not be able to use Windows Meeting Space or any application that relies on the Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking platform or the Teredo transition technology. If you are not going to be affected by those disadvantages, let’s proceed to do it:

1) Go to Start and right click on Network and then click Properties.

2) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, after that click Manage network connections.

manage network connections in Windows Vista

3) Network Connections window will appears. Here you can right click on the network card that you wish to disable IPv6 and click Properties.

network card properties in Windows Vista

4) In the Local Area Connection Properties window, untick Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and click OK.

Note: This method disables IPv6 on your LAN interfaces and connections, but does not disable IPv6 on tunnel interfaces or the IPv6 loopback interface. You need to make change in Windows registry in order to disable the IPv6 on tunnel interface. You can stop here if don’t feel like working with Windows registry. If not, proceed with Step 5.

disable IPv6 in Windows Vista

5) Type regedit in command prompt in order to launch registry editor.

launch regedit in Windows Vista

6) Registry editor will appear, proceed to locate following registry item:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents

Note: If the DisabledComponents item is unavailable, you must create it:

a) In the Edit menu, go to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

create DWORD in Vista registry

b) Type DisabledComponents, and then press ENTER.

DisabledComponents IPv6

7) Double-click DisabledComponents, set the value as 0xffffffff (hexadecimal value) (just type ffffffff) to disable IPv6 on LAN interfaces, connections, and tunnel interfaces except the IPv6 loopback interface, finally click OK.

DisabledComponents 0xffffffff IPv6

8) You must restart the computer for this registry value to take effect.

Other Articles:

Configuring IP Address and Other Network Information in Windows Vista
TEK911 Ip Config Tool - Ipconfig Command in Graphical User Interface
How to check MAC address of network card in Microsoft Windows

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