Jul 9, 2008
SY Tan

How to Enable Bluetooth in Windows Server 2008 64bit Standard Edition

Users who are using Windows Server 2008 64bit Standard Edition generally face a common problem on its Bluetooth part. All applications seem to work well except for the Bluetooth drivers. Users can search and add Bluetooth devices to their computer but these devices appear as unknown in the system. If users try to browse for the drivers, the system will indicate the drivers are not found. Even though Windows Server 2008 has built in Bluetooth service, but due to some reasons, Microsoft seems to have imposed some limitations to it and it can’t work properly without some additional settings.

To enable Bluetooth to work and install the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack on Windows Server 2008, Gil Kirkpatrick has come out with a solution to modify the INF files in the default Windows Server 2008 and subsequently install the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack in the OS. The process is detailed but tedious. Robert McLaws has simplified these detailed processes and they work more easily for non tech-savvy users:
a. Download a customized zip files
b. Unzip the file to C:\Bluetooth
c. Open up the Device Manager
d. right click any items that still say “Unknown Device” and select “Update Drivers”
e. Select the bottom menu option and browse to the C:\BT folder
f. “Lather, rinse, repeat” for any other Unknown Devices

With these steps, your Bluetooth devices will work fine with Windows Server 2008.



  • jhah

    kalau cara aktifin USB Bluetooth gimana tuch??

  • 1DING

    rosenbom,

    I can't find the folder of amd64_microsoft-windows-bth-user_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7112.0_none_322ac0d4e2a169e8 you mentioned.

  • rosenbom

    Rick, you can copy all files from Win7 install foldersystem32driverstoreamd64_microsoft-windows-bth-user_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7112.0_none_322ac0d4e2a169e8 and RFCOMM starts fine.

  • Rick Gates

    This solution does not work for Windows 2008 R2 RC. Do you know if it is possible to do the same thing? I have tried to update zip files to R2 RC version, but the RFCOMM.SYS will not start reporting a missing module.

  • Jonas

    Do you have any solution for the 32-bit version of Windows 2008 server ?

  • Ben W.

    Thank you so much for publishing this. I gave up Vista as my desktop OS and switched to Server 2008 about a month ago. I figured I would just have to be bluetooth-less after the switch. Much appreciated!

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