It really bugs me sometimes that Microsoft imposes artificial limitations on Windows versions because they think features are out of scope. Case in point is Windows Server 2008. Now, there is no earthly reason why WS2008 can’t support Bluetooth right out of the box. An yet, because someone on the Server team decided that servers don’t use Bluetooth, if you’re one of the thousands of people who use WS2008 as a workstation, you’re SOL. Think just installing your Bluetooth drivers, or enabling the “Wireless LAN Services” feature will do it? Think again.
Gil Kirkpatrick posted a solution a couple of weeks ago, and it works like a charm. It involves modifying the INF files from the default WS2008 installation to install the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack on WS2008.
Since it’s kind of a time consuming process, I’ve taken the liberty of completing the required steps, and dumping them in a Zip file, albeit only for WS2008 x64. All you need to do is:
- install your BT drivers as normal,
- unzip the folder to C:\BT
- open up Device Manager
- right click any items that still say “Unknown Device” and select “Update Drivers”
- Select the bottom menu option and browse to the C:\BT folder
- “Lather, rinse, repeat” for any other Unknown Devices
You can find the zip file here. Hopefully that will keep you from beating your head against the wall, as I did, over my #$%^&* Bluetooth mouse.