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
- Get the .exe onto your Windows 2000 machine, I like using genisoimage
- Run tpipv6-001205.exe and follow the extractor, simply choose C:\IPv6Kit
- 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
- Grab a cmd.exe and cd to the directory
- Run setup.exe -x, append something like \files to the path
- Now you can close cmd.exe and navigate to the second directory
- Here you will want to change "NTServicePackVersion=256" to "NTServicePackVersion=1024"
- Now you can run hotfix.exe. It will install the pack and reboot your machine.
- 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")
- 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 script that automates the install and enables it?
- Maybe provide some screenshots or screen recordings
- Documenting other Windows versions
- The source code is available. Maybe link it or do something with it?