In Reader to Reader: "Disabling APIPA" (August 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 25548), Emmett Dulaney discusses a registry edit to disable Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) on Windows XP. Although Emmett is correct that you can disable APIPA on separate interfaces, you can also disable the service on multiple interfaces at once. In the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters registry subkey, set the value of the IPAutoconfigurationEnabled entry to 0*0 (of type REG_DWORD). Then, reboot the machine. This fix creates one registry file that disables APIPA on all your XP machines regardless of which NICs they use. You can then use Group Policy to send out a Windows Installer (.msi) file or a logon or logoff script that includes the registry file. This solution works only on XP. You must use Emmett's technique for Windows 2000.
—Stuart Richards
stuart_richards@hotmail.com