How to remove or disable IPv6 in Windows Server 2008 R2

We don't use IPv6 and we are not planning to use it. Apparently Windows Server 2008 R2 is installed with IPv6 on by default. We would like to uninstall it or totally disable it. I have unchecked the check boxes that link IPv6 to each network adapter in my servers, but the machines still register IPv6 addresses with the DNS server.

Is there any way to totally remove IPv6 from my network? Or am I missing something? Thanks.

Solution 1:

Yes, we've noticed this ourselves. Windows 2008 (and Win 7 for that matter) will use certain tunneling IPv6 addresses. You can turn them off by setting a registry setting. It's described here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852

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

Create a new 32-bit DWORD named "DisabledComponents". Set it to 0x01 to disable the tunneling interfaces.

Solution 2:

We would like to uninstall it or totally disable it.

Nine times out of ten you do not want to do this. The defaults are default for a reason.

The IPv6 network stack is integrated into places you wouldn't normally expect it to be. There is the potential to break features in Remote Assistance, HomeGroup, DirectAccess, and Windows Mail (Source). There are plenty of reports of strange behavior or breakage in BranchCache, Exchange Server 2007 and 2010, and Microsoft Outlook that were resolved when IPv6 was re-enabled.

If you are going to disable IPv6 realize that Microsoft does no testing with IPv6 disabled and that you are going against their recommendations. Make sure you have a good reason to do so.