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How to enable and disable SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3 in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012

This article describes how to enable and disable Server Message Block (SMB) version 1 (SMBv1), SMB version 2 (SMBv2), and SMB version 3 (SMBv3) on the SMB client and server components.

Summary

In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, disabling SMBv2 deactivates the following functionality:

  • Request compounding - allows for sending multiple SMB 2 requests as a single network request
  • Larger reads and writes - better use of faster networks
  • Caching of folder and file properties - clients keep local copies of folders and files
  • Durable handles - allow for connection to transparently reconnect to the server if there is a temporary disconnection
  • Improved message signing - HMAC SHA-256 replaces MD5 as hashing algorithm
  • Improved scalability for file sharing - number of users, shares, and open files per server greatly increased
  • Support for symbolic links
  • Client oplock leasing model - limits the data transferred between the client and server, improving performance on high-latency networks and increasing SMB server scalability
  • Large MTU support - for full use of 10-gigabye (GB) Ethernet
  • Improved energy efficiency - clients that have open files to a server can sleep

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, disabling SMBv3 deactivates the following functionality (and also the SMBv2 functionality that is described in the previous list):

  • Transparent Failover - clients reconnect without interruption to cluster nodes during maintenance or failover
  • Scale Out – concurrent access to shared data on all file cluster nodes
  • Multichannel - aggregation of network bandwidth and fault tolerance if multiple paths are available between client and server
  • SMB Direct – adds RDMA networking support for very high performance, with low latency and low CPU utilization
  • Encryption – Provides end-to-end encryption and protects from eavesdropping on untrustworthy networks
  • Directory Leasing - Improves application response times in branch offices through caching
  • Performance Optimizations - optimizations for small random read/write I/O
More information

The SMBv2 protocol was introduced in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

The SMBv3 protocol was introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

For more information about the capabilities of SMBv2 and SMBv3 capabilities, go to the following Microsoft TechNet websites:

Server Message Block overview

What's New in SMB

Published: 21/10/16 - 08:51:30 (Amanda Higgins)

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How to enable and disable SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3 in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012