The latest Bluetooth 5.3 version is available now. At the moment, there are many more devices than ever attached to your Windows PC simultaneously. We’re here to help you cope with the increasing wireless traffic by showing you how to manage your Bluetooth device collection.
The Uses of Bluetooth in Windows
You can do a lot of things with Bluetooth in Windows. It helps you connect with Bluetooth-compatible peripherals such as mice, keyboards, headsets, and Xbox accessories. It has many more advanced applications. For example, you can use Bluetooth in Windows to connect a laptop screen as an external monitor. You can also use the Nearby Sharing option in Windows if you have Bluetooth drivers enabled for the task.
How to Enable Bluetooth in Windows
Setting up Bluetooth in Windows 10 /11 should be a cinch. The following methods will help you enable Bluetooth on your Windows laptop or PC.
How Bluetooth Works on Windows
To understand how Bluetooth works on Windows, we will discuss a few components of Bluetooth technology that are custom made for Windows.
Bluetooth comes with a few built-in drivers on a Windows device. The Device Manager controls them.
As an overview, here are the main Bluetooth device drivers that you should have listed in Device Manager. The default Bluetooth drivers in a Windows laptop include a compatible driver with Qualcomm or other chipsets.
Note: The list doesn’t include any Bluetooth devices installed on your PC; these vary from PC to PC.
1. Bluetooth Radio/Wireless Bluetooth/Similar
This is the actual Bluetooth receiver/radio that you have in your PC – whether attached to the motherboard or via a USB dongle. If your Bluetooth radio is off, then it’s quite possible that the only thing you’ll see under the Bluetooth dropdown is this, and it needs to be enabled for Bluetooth to even appear in your Settings window and for the below Bluetooth device drivers to become visible. In latest laptops, the Bluetooth Radio text is replaced by RFCOMM which is a kernel-device driver shown on the above screen.
2. Device Identification Service
This always runs in the background so long as you have a Bluetooth radio switched on and is responsible for identifying each of your Bluetooth devices, making sure they work as they should and don’t conflict with each other.
3. Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator
This service kicks in when you’re installing a Bluetooth radio without a driver (a generic USB one, for example), and Microsoft effectively “takes control” of that driver. The Bluetooth and Bluetooth LE Enumerator are shown on the above screen.
4. Service Discovery Service
This looks for different services related to your Bluetooth devices and helps them essentially coordinate with your Bluetooth devices. A bit like the identification service, this is essential for your Bluetooth devices to run.
How to Pair Windows With Another Bluetooth Device
Once your actual Bluetooth radio and its associated services are in order, it’s time to manage your Bluetooth devices: all the fancy peripherals that you want to wirelessly connect to your PC. There are three different ways to pair your Windows machine with an external Bluetooth device such as a smartphone (shown in the example below), a headset, a wireless display, mice, or other peripherals.
1. Using “Bluetooth & Devices” Menu
To add a Bluetooth device, you’ll need to switch on its scanning/pairing mode. The procedure to do this varies between devices, but generally, it involves holding down a button on the device for several seconds before its lights start flashing or it tells you it’s “pairing.”
2. Using the Bluetooth Device Wizard
Windows offers a Run command called “devicepairingwizard” to enable pairing with other Bluetooth devices.
3. Using Swift Pair
You might own a Bluetooth device that is extremely compatible with your Windows laptop or PC due to identical drivers. In such cases, you don’t need a PIN to establish Bluetooth pairing. Instead, the pairing can be directly achieved by enabling an option called “Show notifications to connect using Swift Pair” from the “Bluetooth & devices” menu. In the following example, my 2.4G wireless mouse connected seamlessly with my Windows 11 laptop using Swift Pair (no PIN involved).
How to Remove Bluetooth Device From Windows
Sometimes, if you pair a certain device with another computer then want to reconnect it with the one you’re currently using, you’ll need to (annoyingly) remove the device, then re-pair like you were starting afresh. To remove the device, just select it from your list of Bluetooth devices and click “Remove device.” To re-pair it, follow the pairing instructions above. Image credit: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay. All screenshots by Sayak Boral. As a general rule, for quick installation and pairing of Bluetooth devices, use “Settings,” and for troubleshooting and updating the drivers of your actual Bluetooth radio, use Device Manager. More probably, it is just down to some driver issues that need fixing before you can manage Bluetooth devices. Windows lets you fix those missing drivers by reinstalling them from Device Manager or “More Bluetooth Settings” under “Bluetooth & devices.”
