Even Vista??™s built-in Bluetooth stack only works with certain
types of Bluetooth transceivers, and then only under a full moon.
Usually the biggest stumbling block is getting Vista to recognize and use the
Bluetooth transceiver in your PC. You can tell whether Vista is aware of??”
and has loaded a proper driver for??”your Bluetooth hardware if there??™s a
Bluetooth Devices icon in your Control Panel (Classic View, please).
Most PC-based Bluetooth adapters are either tiny cards wired inside some
laptops or lipstick-sized USB dongles that plug in to the back of your PC.
But just because the manufacturer of that adapter claims compatibility with
Vista doesn??™t mean you??™ll see the Bluetooth icon in Control Panel. The problem
is that only some Bluetooth adapters use Microsoft??™s Bluetooth stack,
the set of drivers and utilities that allows your programs to talk to your Bluetooth
devices. Many adapters instead use either the Toshiba Bluetooth stack
or the Broadcom Bluetooth stack; good luck trying to find out which stack
your adapter uses simply by reading the packaging.
To determine the missing pieces on your PC, open Device Manager in Control
Panel. If all is well, you??™ll see a Bluetooth Radios category, under which
you??™ll find an entry for your adapter and another for Microsoft Bluetooth
Enumerator. If you don??™t see the Microsoft driver, or if your adapter appears
in the Unknown Devices category, you have three choices: hunt down a
native Vista driver, be content with your device??™s proprietary software (if it
works), or discard your adapter and spend $20 on a newer one.
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