Installing IPv6 on older Windows versions

Windows 2000

Did you know that Windows 2000 supports IPv6? Well, sort of. It's a "Technology Preview" that has to be manually installed. Installing it however, is comparable to witchcraft. Which is why I've decided to document the process.

What you'll need

• A (virtual) machine running Windows 2000
• tpipv6-001205.exe
  • Download: web.archive.org, repo.julias.zone

How to install it

1. Get the .exe onto your Windows 2000 machine, I like using genisoimage
2. Run tpipv6-001205.exe and follow the extractor, simply choose C:\IPv6Kit
3. Navigate to the destination directory

As-is, the setup.exe is made for Service Pack 1. See below on how to hot-fix it for each service pack.

Service Pack 4

1. Grab a cmd.exe and cd to the directory
2. Run setup.exe -x, append something like \files to the path
3. Now you can close cmd.exe and navigate to the second directory
4. Here you will want to change "NTServicePackVersion=256" to "NTServicePackVersion=1024"
5. Now you can run hotfix.exe. It will install the pack and reboot your machine.
6. Open "Control Panel", navigate to "Network and Dial-up Connections", "Local Area Connection" (if the latter is not visible, it's possible that your NIC is not recognized. If using QEMU, try "rtl8139")
7. Go to "Properties", "Install", "Protocol", "Microsoft IPv6 Protocol"

Your Windows 2000 machine now supports the current Internet Protocol, version 6. Enjoy surfing!

Postscripts

• This process added the "ipv6" command. Feel free to play around with it a little.
• In order to ping an IPv6 address, use the "ping6" command, same is with "tracert6".

To be done

• Scour the internet for possible newer versions of tpipv6
• Simplify the process, clean up the page
• Document installation process for other Service Packs
• Providing hot-fixed versions for each service pack, so the install process is less complex.
• Possibly writing a batch script that automates the install and enables it?