Windows – How to get bluetooth to work on Windows Server 2012

bluetoothbluetooth-3.0driverswindows server 2012

Apparently Windows Server 2012 does not support Bluetooth out of the box? Is there any way to get Bluetooth to work?

I went to the manufacturers' website and found this link: http://www.present-with-confidence.com/smklink-downloads/VP6493-software.zip

But, the problem is that it installs a Toshiba bluetooth stack software, which happens to bundle in the drivers (I can't install just the drivers because the INF files are not present — perhaps embedded in the exe). Afterwards, it tells me I have 30 days remaining for evaluation… so I want to avoid using Toshiba's software (since this is not a Toshiba machine).

Anyone have any luck getting the appropriate bluetooth drivers for Windows Server 2012?

Best Answer

I have found solution here: http://www.win2008workstation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=2108&start=50

Hey guys, I know this thread hasn't seen any real activity since December but I figure this is a good place to chime in anyway:

I've been playing around with getting Bluetooth working on Server 2012 Datacenter+GUI that I have installed on my Lenovo T500 ThinkPad. I've taken this about as far as I have time to, and figured I'd share in the hopes of someone else being able to contribute.

Driver/Registry Pack

Modified Broadcom Drivers

The driver/registry pack was made using files from a Win 8 Pro iso direct downloaded from MS; so a clean base. I ripped out all the Bluetooth related drivers/registry stuff I thought would be required.

Things currently working: 1) Bluetooth devices/drivers are all showing and installed. 2) You can access the Bluetooth settings for the PC. 3) You can make the PC discoverable by other devices, and change it's name. 4) The Bluetooth settings icon is present in the Control Panel. 5) The Bluetooth settings icon is present in the right-click menu of your computer in Devices & Printers.

Things currently not working: 1) Using Bluetooth at all in a normal boot; you need to Disable Driver Signature Enforcement each time. 2) Discovering other devices; while your computer can be seen it is blind to other devices. 3) Initiating a pairing request from a remote device does not pop up with the pairing notification on the PC; you can't see the PIN or complete pairing. 4) The system tray icon is not present; the bttray.exe program will run, but the icon isn't visible. 5) The control panel settings icon doesn't open the settings; if you manually execute the command executed by the icon it works. (Also works as above if you access the settings through the right-click menu of your computer in Devices & Printers)

To install: 1) Boot to safe mode. 2) Extract zip file. 3) Copy the contents of the whole "Windows" folder in the zip to your Windows install directory; overwriting when prompted. Note: If you get permissions errors while copying and can't sort them out, I used the Tweaking.com Windows Repair v1.9.4 (not 1.9.6 or higher, they won't work) to apply only the Registry and File permissions repairs. 4) Once the files have been successfully copied, shut down the machine. 5) Start the machine back up and boot it with "Driver Signature Enforcement" disabled, using the F8 menu at startup. 6) Go to the extracted files and run the "InstallDrivers.bat" (as administrator if applicable). 7) Follow the prompts and click "Install this driver software anyway" or Yes/OK on all the boxes that pop up. Hopefully there are no errors. 8) Reboot the machine, again booting with signature enforcement disabled.

At this point you are as close to the Bluetooth support in a stock Win8 install as I can get you; however just as on Win8, you may also want to install third-party Bluetooth drivers to get everything working. The modified Broadcom drivers posted above are the latest ones from their website with simple inf modifications to get them to play nice on 2012. Simply run the setup as normal once extracted from the Zip. Repeat step 8, and now you're as functional as me!

I have installed my native bluetooth drivers instead of Broadcom - it works for me.

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