Guidance for configuring IPv6 in Windows for advanced users

09/08/2020

4 minutes to read





In this article

This article provides solutions to configure Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) for advanced users in Windows.

Original product version: Windows 10 - all editions, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2

Original KB number: 929852

Summary

A prefix table is used to determine which address to use when multiple addresses are available for a Domain Name System (DNS) name.

By default, Windows favors IPv6 global unicast addresses over IPv4 addresses.

It is common for IT administrators to want to disable IPv6. This is often because of some unknown, networking-related issue, such as a name resolution issue.

Important IPv6 is a mandatory part of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and newer versions. We do not recommend that you disable IPv6 or its components. If you do, some Windows components may not function.

We recommend that you use Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies instead of disabling IPV6.

Use registry key to configure IPv6

Important Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

To configure IPv6, modify the following registry value based on the following table.

Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\

Name: DisabledComponents

Type: REG_DWORD

Min Value: 0x00

Max Value: 0xFF (IPv6 disabled)

IPv6 Functionality Registry value Comments Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 Dec 32 Hex 0x20Bin xx1x xxxx Recommended instead of disabling it. Disable IPv6 Dec 255 Hex 0xFFBin 1111 1111 See startup delay occurs after you disable IPv6 in Windows if you encounter startup delay after you disable IPv6 in Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.



Additionally, system startup will be delayed for 5 seconds if IPv6 is disabled by incorrectly, setting the Disabled Components registry setting to a value of 0xfffffff. The correct value should be 0xff. For more information, see Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Overview.



The Disabled Components registry value does not affect the state of the check box. Therefore, even if the Disabled Components registry key is set to disable IPv6, the check box in the Networking tab for each interface can still be checked. This is expected behavior. disable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces Dec 16 Hex 0x10Bin xxx1 xxxx disable IPv6 on all tunnel interfaces Dec 1 Hex 0x01Bin xxxx xxx1 disable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces (except the loopback) and on IPv6 tunnel interface Dec 17 Hex 0x11Bin xxx1 xxx1 prefer IPv6 over IPv4 Bin xx0x xxxx re-enable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces Bin xxx0 xxxx re-enable IPv6 on all tunnel interfaces Bin xxx xxx0 Re-enable IPv6 on nontunnel interfaces and on IPv6 tunnel interfaces Bin xxx0 xxx0

Note Administrators must create an .admx file to expose the settings in step 5 in a Group Policy setting.

You must restart your computer for these changes to take effect.

Value other than 0 or 32 causes the Routing and Remote Access service to fail after this change takes effect.

By default, the 6to4 tunneling protocol is enabled in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or later versions when an interface is assigned a public IPv4 address (that is, an IPv4 address that is not in the ranges 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16). 6to4 automatically assigns an IPv6 address to the 6to4 tunneling interface for each such address that is assigned, and 6to4 dynamically registers these IPv6 addresses on the assigned DNS server. If this behavior is not desired, we recommend that you disable IPv6 tunnel interfaces on the affected hosts.

You can also follow these steps to modify the registry key:

Open an administrative Command Prompt window. Run the following command: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters" /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d <value> /f Note Replace the <value> with the corresponding value in the previous table.

How to calculate the registry value

Windows use bitmasks to check the Disabled Components values and determine whether a component should be disabled.

To learn which component each bit (from low to high) controls, refer to the following table.

Tunnel Disable tunnel interfaces Tunnel6to4 Disable 6to4 interfaces TunnelIsatap Disable Isatap interfaces Tunnel Teredo Disable Teredo interfaces Native Disable native interfaces (also PPP) PreferIpv4 Prefer IPv4 in default prefix policy TunnelCp Disable CP interfaces TunnelIpTls Disable IP-TLS interfaces

For each bit, 0 means false and one means true. Refer to the following table for an example.

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 Disable tunnel interfaces 0 0 1 1 Disable 6to4 interfaces 0 0 0 0 Disable Isatap interfaces 0 0 0 0 Disable Teredo interfaces 0 0 0 0 Disable native interfaces (also PPP) 0 1 0 1 Prefer IPv4 in default prefix policy. 1 0 0 0 Disable CP interfaces 0 0 0 0 Disable IP-TLS interfaces 0 0 0 0 Binary 0010 0000 0001 0000 0000 0001 0001 0001 Hexadecimal 0x20 0x10 0x01 0x11

Reference

For information about RFC 3484, see Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

For more information about how to set IPv4 precedence over IPv6, see Using SIO_ADDRESS_LIST_SORT.

For information about RFC 4291, see IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture.

For more information about the related issues, see:

For more information about tools to help with network trace, see: