I just did this on Win7 Professional and it works. I tested it before and after making the change.

1. Use Registry Editor to create the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

2. Add the following value to this key:

Value name: IPAutoconfigurationEnabled
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value in hexadecimal: 0 (A value of 0 disables APIPA support on this computer)

NOTE: If the IPAutoconfigurationEnabled entry is not present, a default value of 1 is assumed, which indicates that APIPA is enabled.

3. After you make this change, restart your computer.