A reliability refresh

Jan 27, 2010 10:10 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has made available for download a reliability refresh designed to resolve issues affecting Windows Vista, including platforms upgraded to Service Pack 2, in Bluetooth pairing scenarios. According to the Redmond company, Bluetooth pairing issues affect only Windows Vista, and not customers running Windows XP or the latest version of the Windows client, Windows 7. Customers can now grab an update from the Microsoft Download Center, set up to resolve reliability issues associated with Windows Portable Devices (WPD).

“You try to pair a Bluetooth device with a computer that is running Windows Vista. When you initiate Bluetooth pairing from the Bluetooth device, the Bluetooth services on the Bluetooth device are not enabled automatically. You have to manually enable the services,” the software giant explained. “This issue does not occur when you initiate Bluetooth pairing from the computer. In this situation, the Bluetooth device's services are turned on automatically.”

Microsoft is offering the Vista SP2 Bluetooth pairing reliability update for both the 32-bit (x86) and the 64-bit (x64) versions of the operating system. “To apply this update, you must have hotfix 971514 installed on a computer that is running Windows Vista Service Pack 2,” the company informed.

Update 971514 refers to the “Windows Portable Devices (WPD) platform, a driver technology that supports many portable devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and portable media players. The Platform Update for Windows Vista supports Windows 7 extensions to the Windows Portable Devices (WPD) platform,” Microsoft noted.

Bluetooth pairing is a process which essentially pairs together two devices via a Bluetooth connection. The marriage between devices is necessary for security reasons, as well as to keep any data transfers private. Following the first paring, devices can be set to automatically reconnect to one another when in range.