Uncrippling Bluetooth in Windows Vista RTM – Addendum
What I missed the first time around and who’s still responsible.
Introduction
I wanted to take a few minutes to touch on this really quick as it seems I’ve helped project a misconception. My lack of substantial reasoning in my article Uncrippling Bluetooth in Windows Vista RTM.
The Beef
I’ve since come across some information tucked nicely away on Microsoft’s website discussing the new plans for Bluetooth. I’ve since discovered that they kept the MS Bluetooth Stack with all the profiles in RC1 and RC2 for testing purposes. That being said their final ideology is to begin enforcing driver signing on Bluetooth devices to coincide with their requirement for direct devices and generally create a more secure operating system (A potential exploit would exist on a machine that requires drivers to be signed but Bluetooth device profiles not to be. I wouldn’t be very secure if you had an unverified device being able to interact with the kernel.) They also want to reprioritize the way Bluetooth devices are handled in the operating system. Using a technology called Synchronous Connection-Oriented profiles. These profiles can only be developed on Vista machines. So this infers that the vendors, who previously expected Microsoft to knock out these generic profiles, are now required to get Vista machines and develop their profiles from square one and still be able to sign their driver using the method only available on Vista platforms.
That being said, Microsoft is still to blame for at the very least not leaving us with a backup plan. It’s completely up to the vendors and now us to find out where to download the profiles. Maybe in SP1 we’ll get a full set of profiles that have been collected from all of the vendors. And they’ll all be signed and be really shiny, I’m sure. Until that point, we’re not going to know which devices will work and which won’t. Natively with Vista’s MS Bluetooth Stack, which I’m sure still isn’t going to be as full featured as the WIDCOMM driver used in my guide
Coming Full-Circle
Why the Apple iPhone has changed Man-Kind – By Joe Hancuff
Introduction
Here we are again, another CES and MacWorld in full swing. The usual suspects are about at both shows. Microsoft making the typical large showing at CES as well as all of the various device vendors and manufacturers. The latest and greatest of what’s coming up this year on shiny and bright display. Each company hoping to make bigger waves in their respective markets. This is what millions of the employees of the many technology companies hope for, to come out ahead of the pack at CES, to gain the ultimate notoriety as best in show.
Sometimes however there is an announcement, a new product, a new technology that appears to be something really new and advanced and everyone looks at it with baited breath and ooo’s and aaa’s and ogles as mere onlookers to the advancement of technology.
CES has been happening for 40 years now believe it or not. Some of you younger folks probably didn’t even think there was technology worth talking about 40 years ago. Believe it or not we, as a people have been talking about what’s new, what’s next, and what’s cool for just that long. However, this CES/MacWorld season is special. This is the first time something so amazing, so advanced, just so mind-blowingly impressive has come out and changed the world.
Microsoft at CES
Microsoft made their typically well put-together showing at CES. I watched the Key-note live on the web. While I’m a big fan of Microsoft software there wasn’t really all that much that really took my breath away. Either that or I already knew a lot about it. What I didn’t know also really wasn’t all that great, simply rehashing, repackaging, rebranding of already existing technologies. I believe that the most notable item Microsoft had to show was the Microsoft TV for the Xbox 360. This is an IPTV based system. It looked fantastic on the stage there and the interface was amazing as dictated by years of lessons with Media Center.
So far though, nothing has really stood out. There are some neat gadgets and such. Sony and HP worked with Microsoft to help bring forth the rebirth of the hand-held PC or Origami as some have called them. Super slim, super cool, full featured computers. Again, a repackaging of what’s already there. Nothing actually new or revolutionary. Most professionals outside of marketing or development have grown accustomed to what to expect at CES and MacWorld: Smaller cell phones and cameras, Faster video cards, better audio cards, new and wacky mice and keyboards, and generally the last ditch attempt at a company getting a product out because if you’re product is in CES it sells better than if it’s not.
The Big Step
Ever since the year 2000 rolled around, we, as a people have been asking those in the know, “Where the hell are our flying cars and hover boards?” And every year after that we’ve looked on into the media reading the latest of the late news on the newest gadgets waiting… holding our breath in anticipation of the one big thing that will either destroy us or take us forward in a giant leap.
Nobody really ever thought Apple would be the company to accomplish this. I’m sure the vast majority of techie followers out there still haven’t been hit with this. The reason being is that Apple has been more than just hush-hush about it, they’ve been completely silent. The YouTube videos (here, and here) has been out for almost a year now. Little did everyone know that the very technology being tested was an Apple technology for which they hold the only patents on currently? Get ready, we’re almost there.
Good Call
Here we have the iPhone. Apple’s amazing little gadget weight just 4.8 ounces and measuring in a staggeringly thin 11.6mm. Keep in mind, that’s thinner than a Motorola Q and the Samsung Blackjack. Well, here… see for yourself.
Watch the MacWorld iPhone Introduction
Apple iPhone features
As you can see. It’s very special. I’d like to think this truly is the greatest thing since sliced bread. History buffs will get that reference as sliced bread was something of a major advancement in culinary technology. The idea was to make bread ergonomic and the perfect size to create other foods with it. The interface of sliced bread opened up an entire realm of culinary understanding and growth that never was before thought possible. This is exactly the same thing (except you don’t eat the iPhone); this removes the device from the equation and simply lets you touch your software. Touch what you want. Do what you want. Don’t worry about the hardware. Amazing.
The Apple iPhone is a breakthrough in many technical and philosophical regards. There hasn’t really ever been anything nearly like it. I’ve heard some call it “the PSP of cell phones” but quite honestly, the PSP isn’t even in the same ballpark as this device. It is truly amazing that in your hand you carry desktop power in a device so intuitive and so clean and easy to use. Not to mention features, the phone portion has roughly the same feature set as a desktop office IP phone. Take a Cisco 7960G for instance. Call waiting with ID on screen, yep. Conferencing? Yup? Dial codes for conferencing? Nope. Graphical, obvious, and clear operation in all aspects. As a media player it’s as slick and refined as one would expect from a 6th generation iPod but even more so given the phones amazing interface. The browser is also full featured desktop version of Safari which many a Mac user will love and any PC lover will immediate fall in love with because you get full featured plug-in compatible internet browsing, this means Java applets, Flash 9, Active X controls. Truly amazing. This device as Steve Jobs said, is at least 5 years ahead of anything else out on the market. When I first heard him say that I had reservations of such a bold comment, and then I saw the thing in motion and it really opened my eyes.
Full Circle
There was a time when all man did was draw pictures into the sand with his finger. This was the most basic form of communicating indirectly. Where a message could be stored in the dirt, on the cave wall, or on our bodies. And as technology moved out so did our interfaces to devices. Next came coal and stone, and pigmentation. A brush, paints, inks, leads. Pens, pencils, erasers. In the dawning of the digital age the only interface to a computer was a keyboard. And while the keyboard was laid out in a static manner it still took a great deal of “brain programming” to interface your brain with the content you saw on the screen. This brain programming is what you do so that your experience with a device whether it be a piece of paper or a laptop becomes transparent. You have to automate the controls of your muscles in order to type. Just as I’m typing this right now I’m no longer needing to consciously think about what muscle moves where, which finger moves when and in what sequence. I probably may make it look easy, but as most of you can attest its taken years to learn this muscle memory or “interface programming” as I like to call it.
Back in 1984 Apple introduced the Apple Macintosh, the first real personal computer. This too changed the world. Because not only did you have the standard keyboard, you had this silly looking puck of plastic. All of a sudden you had multiple functions with a single interface unlike the buttons on the keyboard which could never change. The revolution of the personal computer was accomplished not by graphics, cost effectiveness, or speed. The mouse is what kicked it all off.
In 2001 Apple took everybody a step forward in terms of personal devices. The Apple iPod was then a fairly featureless device with a monochrome screen and horrendous battery life. It did however have one of these most innovative interfaces ever seen on a mobile device and to this day is mocked and imitated by a great number of companies. The touch ring. No buttons means no having to remember the position of a function. The functions become intuitive. The iPod used a rolodex style scrolling and what do you do with a rolodex? You spin. Thusly, you spin your finger around the ring to control scrolling, volume, seeking, etc. Work that thumb. While this wasn’t as extreme in architecture as the iPhone it was the test bed for such a technology which has been in major development for over 2 years now.
Now, in 2007, Apple shows us the iPhone using the mythical multi-touch interface. How many buttons does it have? In total, two. The main interface only has a single button and the body has a sleep/wake button. That’s it. No slide out keyboard of keys that can never change function or shape. No proprietary buttons on the side for opening an application. The 3.5″ multitouch screen is your only interface. As you saw, there is no stylus. You use your finger.
This is huge folks. Apple has taken us back to our very basic interface. Your grandmother can pick this device up and with no interface programming be able to use it as proficiently as those of us used to Windows Mobile or Blackberry’s. Perhaps even more so due to the fact that she’ll not have to unlearn her previous interface programming in addition to those of us with PDAs with touch screens, we really have a stigma with regards to touching our screens with our fingers.
What makes this interface key is the hardware becomes transparent to the user. You touch what you want and it does exactly what you’d think it would. You touch and drag it does exactly that. The screen is rich and vibrant and the software is quite revolutionary in implementation. We’ve now come full-circle.
This Changes Everything
What does this mean for the markets that the iPhone is included in? It means those markets were just “Pwn3d” in the worst sense of the word. Three days ago I loved my Microsoft Zune despite my reservations about the firmware. After seeing the iPhone, I just sort of look at my Zune and go, “oh….”
There is absolutely nothing on this planet that can even begin to hold a candle to the iPhone in terms of the jump in technology it represents–or the jump in philosophy. I can’t even possibly imagine a way to improve on its design or implementation. I couldn’t even begin to try to envision something in the same class that could even compare in terms of ease of use coupled with extreme power. This device just changed the entire game for everyone. Not just cell phones, music players and GPS devices. I feel primitive using my 170 dollar mouse and my 200 dollar keyboard. I feel like my brand new Dell XPS was just made obsolete by a mere cell phone.
The technology and miniaturization displayed in the iPhone is now the template by which all makers of electronics should design by. Simple and elegant, yet powerful and omnipotent in features. Calling this device a phone is almost an insult to such a jump forward in time.
I’m sure many of you where watching the video asking if this was some kind of joke (assuming you hadn’t seen it before coming here.) I was asking myself the same thing it truly seems simply too good to be true. This is Star Trek here and now. Remember Star Trek: The Next Generation? The touch pads they used in their hands? Here we are folks. This is another example of science fiction becoming science fact.
The Future of Consumer Electronics as We Know It.
What does all this mean? Well, to put it quite simply, the industry will either have to flourish in this era or they will die. Once someone gets their hands on an iPhone and plays with it for 2 minutes they’ll never ever want to use a Mouse and keyboard again. Nor will they ever want to play with their Zune or iRiver. They’ll never want to use a cell phone again. It is THAT good.
Basically Apple came out during the CES/MacWorld season and closed the doors on competition on any of those handheld markets. As if to say on a mere January 7, “Sorry, fellas. We’re all done here.” It’s game over for 2007.
What I’m about to say will probably sting many of you. This is what happens when a company actually finishes a project. This is also what happens when the same company is responsible for both hardware and software. A company which is known for great quality control and ultra-refined user experience. Nothing compares and I feel nothing will compare for many years to come.
In the coming days, many other competing companies such as Microsoft will come out in response to the announcement of the iPhone and make excuses as to why the Zune isn’t remotely as functional, stylish or even cool. I honestly don’t think makers of other devices are even going to comment on it. I’m sure they’re just as blown away as I am about the whole thing. If I were Microsoft I would clearly embrace this technology and help to make it better. Because let’s face it, when I think great hardware, I think Microsoft. They don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of devising something of this caliber. Sorry Microsoft fans and Employees. As much as I am a fan of Microsoft, you all know I am 100% right on this.
What’s next?
Out of my own head comes innovation that I never thought possible until now. This refers back to the sliced bread bit. Now that I have my sliced bread, what kind of sandwiches can I make with it? The possibilities are limitless! Wrap your brain around this. Think of an Apple Tablet PC. 17″ screen with multi-touch. That same wonderful single piece metal structure and the beautifully polished glass or Lexan surface for you to put your fingers on… Try to imagine this device a full-fledged computer running OSX and Microsoft Windows Vista sitting on your lap standing off of your lap at only ½” thick. Just imagine what the future holds. We’ve come back to our roots. We’re back to drawing in the dirt with our fingers. Except the dirt is no longer dirt, it’s a device powered by this Multi-touch technology. I predict we now see a marked acceleration in development around this very concept.
The Cover-Up
You just have to give mad props to Apple for the way they covered this up. Go Google the iPhone. Go ahead and do it, I’ll wait. … See? All the bloggers and all the insider websites that claimed to have leaked photos and leaked specs on the iPhone were way off, completely off. Not a single pic of anything that looked remotely like the true iPhone. That is amazing. The government should subcontract to Apple for their cover-ups. Even some of the most trusted insiders were given misinformation and the effect was jaw-dropping at MacWorld. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody.
Conclusion
Get ready for a wild ride, folks. It can only get better.
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Disenchanted by Windows Vista
Why Vista isn’t ready for the real world – by Joe Hancuff
Introduction
In the past few months I’ve been rigorously testing and using Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate on a number of platforms. My goal was to see if it’s ready to become the centerpiece of my workflow. It was… almost. In this editorial, I will be expressing my opinions and technical observations on the operating system as a whole, my predictions, wishes and concerns regarding Microsoft’s efforts in creating and maintaining this operating system and what I’m going to do now.
The experience
I’ve installed and have been using Vista RTM for some time now. In general, the operating system is very polished. As many of you already know the installation process has finally been updated for this century. Gone are the DOS based installers of 1991. You’re finally confronted with an easy to use and easy to see graphical interface almost as homage to Linux installers(which have been graphical for quite some time now.) I think what Microsoft was trying to accomplish was refine and make the “out of box” experience as nice and simple as possible for users who know nothing about installing or upgrading an operating system. This has been done very successfully. If you’re doing a fresh install that is.
Install times have been shortened dramatically and will utilize your hardware better to make the installation as quick as possible. On my AMD FX60 machine, a fresh install will take as little as 10 to 15 minutes depending on the speed of the drive, etc. One thing to note is the driver support inside the installer. Unlike XP, I didn’t have to specify any additional drivers for installing to my RAID array which is a big bonus because before, you were forced to either integrate the drivers into the installation image or install and make the grand hajj for a floppy drive and a floppy(who still uses those anyway?) and find the boot-time driver for your hardware(since you couldn’t use the Windows driver in most cases for things like RAID controllers, etc). That was one of my biggest gripes about XP, even the later installers still required a floppy drive to install 3rd party drivers at install time. Not very forward looking at all. That being said… I can’t say whether or not they’ve eliminated that requirement in Vista. Because even though the little button was there to install 3rd party drivers it was never needed on any machine I installed on. I’m sure that will change just like with XP as hardware changes and the installer versions don’t. I highly doubt that Microsoft will bother updating installer drivers. Be prepared to have that stack of discs handy to install the boot-time driver for your holographic storage device.
Post installation is simple and painless in its worst form; it really has been cleaned up and polished to a nice luster. You’re simply asked to enter a username which becomes a local administrator by default. This I found to be very handy because one of the first things anyone who’s used a computer for longer than oh… say… 5 minutes will do is disable UAC.
In general Vista is absolutely gorgeous. That is, if you have the appropriate hardware. My FX60, a watercooled and overclocked gaming rig scored a 5.1 on the performance scale after some tweaking. So suffice it to say my user experience was fantastic. I installed the 64 bit version which surprisingly enough had some fantastic driver support for my hardware despite my hardware being almost a year old. This comes not from Microsoft hard-coding driver support into the OS, but simply moving from a CD to DVD for installation media. I feel this move is long overdue as there are just too many different devices out there to not include as much driver support out of the box as you possibly can. Nobody likes installing a new OS and then having to dive into Device Manager looking for what didn’t get installed and then trying to get their drivers from the manufactures or if your NIC or wireless adapter wasn’t installed, searching for the original driver disks.
The Aero interface is slick and clean, and a lot of clutter has been eliminated. I have my gripes about where they moved stuff to but that’s fine. It’s more designed for non-powerusers and that’s where Microsoft wants to go with it.
Most surprising is that both 32-bit and 64-bit version have nearly the same support. The limitations come from vendors who have not yet released or refuse to release 64-bit drivers to Microsoft or the general public. Contrary to the case of Windows XP x64 which had absolutely no driver support out of the box and Microsoft appeared to just shrug their shoulders at it.
The first impressing is that Vista is cleaned up, dressed nicely and ready to rock. We’ll see.
The good
Here I will sing the praises of new features or advancements not just conveniences in the operating system.
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Windows Media Center
This is an absolute joy to use. They’ve really cleaned up the interface and generally revamped the entire program. All in all it takes no time to start and has a smaller footprint than the application from MCE 2005. The biggest change was that they made the arrangement more intuitive for widescreen displays. You’ll see better organized information in widescreen in addition to actually not having to scroll as much to get to your desired media. They’re removed the limitation that you had to have an NTSC Tuner installed before you could install an ATSC tuner. So those of you with your nifty USB ATSC tuners are now in luck. Chances are that they’ll work great in Vista MCE.
The program guide is where I’ve seen one of the biggest enhancements to content. Not only do you get your regular guide with information for 2 weeks in advance and all the expected DVR abilities, you also get a movie guide which is more like a program guide filter. What it does is filter the movies from the program guide and arrange them more like DVD’s. You can sort by genre or channel that they occur on, schedule viewing or recording times as well. Very slick.
This feature by far is one of the best new features of Windows Vista.
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User Account Control
Ok, so while I absolutely abhor this feature because I’m a geek, this is actually a really great sort of feature for say… your mom. This is a Unix-like kernel level user session isolation that actively prevents a user from doing anything damaging. In its default configuration it’s extremely annoying however it can be configured to still protect the machine and not be as annoying. This feature will help keep support calls to a minimum and definitely help eliminate issues with spyware for those users who simply don’t know any better.
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Internet Explorer 7
While this isn’t exclusive to Vista it’s been in Vista far longer than it’s been available for XP. This is the integrated and default web browser. There’s nothing spectacular about the overall experience from IE7 other than it appears to have ripped off tabbed browsing from Firefox. I guess that’s ok, I just want it to work. The big deal with IE7 is the phishing filter. I don’t know how many spam/phishing email’s I’ve gotten with links to say… my bank, and if you clicked the link you’d be taken to a site that looked something like or exactly like your real bank page. The problem is that it’s not, and when you put your information into the page, you’re just handing it over to the unscrupulous thief who’s about to have a shopping spree on your tab. The phishing filter will alert you if the page you’re viewing isn’t actually what it claims to be. While I don’t know the particulars on how exactly this works, I can tell that with a fair amount of accuracy it does work. It will at least provide the haphazard users with at least a speed bump before emptying their bank accounts.
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Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption
This is a fantastic new feature that with the right hardware is totally transparent to the user and still offers complete protection. This feature is more geared toward users who are somewhat worried about physical access. This would mostly apply to laptop users who carry critical or proprietary information on their machines. The basic gist of the software is that it will encrypt your drive on a hardware level. There are two modes for this one of them requiring Trusted Platform Module chip present on the motherboard. Transparent mode simply uses the key from this chip to unlock the hard drive at boot time and requires absolutely no user interaction. If this hardware isn’t present, the drive won’t boot and cannot be accessed on any other hardware with any other operating system. The second mode requires you to enter a user settable pin or insert a USB thumb drive with the key certificate present before the drive will boot. This is fantastic for every level of user. The only downside is that if you go with the TPM1.2 method and you have a hardware failure or environmental failure(i.e. fire, etc) then it will become impossible to recover your data save for government forensics. However, I don’t think the point of BitLocker is to save your data but to simply make sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
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Windows Explorer
This is just getting better. It’s more of a convenience but there are several additions to this venerable program as well. First and most notably is the ability to sort and search on any type of meta data. For instance, you can search for music files based on artist instead of just a file name. You can sort pictures by date taken, or any of the data available in EXIF entries if present. This means that you can sort the pictures by the camera by which they were taken. Or even the lens used on the camera by which they were taken. And the list goes on and on.
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Shadow Folders
This is yet another advancement on the venerable system restore. This is more or less a breadcrumb trail of changes to files. You can revert single files or entire volumes to any arbitrary point in the past without compromising too much space on the disk.
These are some of the most notable new features from my perspective. I could go on and on and on about all the new stuff in Vista but that’s really outside the scope of this article.
The Bad
Here’s where things start getting ugly for me. As a basic user who won’t be doing any sort of media development, transcoding or distribution won’t be disappointed. Anyone looking to use Vista in an enterprise environment will be in for quite the surprise.
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Smart Cards
Remember those silly little credit-card sized things you heard about way back in the day? You might even use one now. Little miracle of biometric security technology they are. There are numerous vendors and they all require their own Cryptographic Service Providers. They’re like drivers for the cards themselves not just the reader. These CSP’s were included with Windows 2000/XP and thusly the vendors have adopted this relationship and have not made their CSP’s available to the general public to download and install based on the assumption that Microsoft would include them with each new version of Windows.
That being said, Microsoft left them out. All of them. All but two… the two Microsoft-branded basic and enhanced CSP’s which aren’t even supposed to be used with smartcards just certificates.
Enterprise customers who currently utilize biometrics should consider holding off or checking with your card vendor for the CSP’s before migrating to Vista as you will not be able to use your card with Vista.
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Data Execution Prevention
As if this feature wasn’t irritating enough in XP now they’ve gone and cranked up the sensitivity so that even other Microsoft products “Stop working” due to DEP. This is simply ridiculous. The vast majority of application and software incompatibilities are caused by DEP being over-sensitive about what you can and can’t run. On top of that, despite the fact that you appear to be able to exclude executables from DEP prosecution, you are only allowed to exclude Microsoft executables from DEP. If it’s a 3rd party application then no, the system will insist on whining about it. This is the biggest reason why software doesn’t run on Vista.
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Driver Signing Enforcement in x64
This is almost understandable for security reasons. Microsoft wants to increase stability by only allowing drivers to be installed that adhere to their strict standards in terms of quality and structure. The fact that you can’t turn this off on a permanent basis is kinda stupid at best. It’s off by default in 32-bit windows. What I also don’t understand is why some unsigned drivers will still install despite being given the warning while others that should be pretty generic and no where near the kernel get disabled by this Gestapo feature. Right up there with DEP on my annoyance scale, let me tell you.
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Vender Support
This really isn’t Microsoft’s problem. I blame the vendors for the vast majority of hardware incompatibilities. The reason being is that XP x64 has been out forever it seems and the vendors have known about Vista since it was called Longhorn and have had plenty of time to develop their API’s against Microsoft’s Driver SDK(which, by the way vendors if you’re reading this, is a free download from Microsoft.) As far as I know the only difference between 32 bit and 64 bit drivers for the most part is how their compiled. I shouldn’t be that difficult to at least release a beta of all of your XP drivers in 64 bit form to at least give it a go. There are vendors out there who are cold and downright mean when asking about 64-bit support. Pinnacle Systems, I’m calling you out here.
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Codecs
This is a huge gripe of mine as a do a lot of work in various media types, none of which function 100% if at all in Vista, 32-bit or 64-bit. I don’t understand where the huge jump in codec architecture except that perhaps DirectX 10 is still. Well, not finished. WDM codecs don’t install, VFW don’t install right. DirectShow filters don’t install right and for some reason Microsoft’s MPEG2 Directshow filter was disabled. This means no streaming MPEG2 to extenders. This seems to be nothing but damaging to functionality. It doesn’t enhance security all that much. I conjure Microsoft did this to try to battle piracy of media. If you install one of the many famous large codec packs you’ll be left with holes and formats that crash Windows Media Player. There is however a Vista Codec pack which seems to work well enough for playing. But if you’re looking to transcode, don’t bother, you simply can’t unless it’s uncompressed AVI into Windows Media.
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Compatability with Current Server Architecture
This sort of relates to the whole smart card thing above but a different aspect. This is a good example of how they’ve made certain breaks in compatibility from XP in Vista. For instance enrolling in smart card services for using a smart card to log on. If the server you’re using to enroll is not Longhorn Server, Vista will not be able to enroll. What’s more, Microsoft has actually released instructions on how to hack the enrollment website for Windows Server 2003 with code from the enrollment page from Longhorn. Seriously fellas. For a bunch of guys who don’t like it when people reverse engineer your stuff that sure is a strange way of going about it? How about releasing an optional hotfix for Server 2003? Speaking of which.
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Hotfixes
This is almost funny. I have a source inside Microsoft that tells me that the quality control on the hotfixes that go out the door is very little if any. I had a hotfix designed for my processor specifically for Windows Vista x64 that crashed when trying to install it. Now that’s comedy. I wonder if they’re going to release a hotfix to fix the hotfixes.
The Ugly
Alright, that’s it! This is the “there’s no excuse for this crap” section of my article. I really only have one item on here that I’m going to talk about that’s the absolutely and complete lack of any useful Bluetooth support.
There is no official word on why all but two Bluetooth profiles have been removed from the Vista RTM build. They were in RC1 and RC2 and other Betas. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There is no official word even internally at Microsoft as to why this was done. And for someone with a Mobile device, stereo Bluetooth headphones, hands-free kit, this is ultra frustrating. There are many business professionals who depend on Bluetooth connectivity for their PDA’s or cell phones and others who print via Bluetooth. As of this writing the only profiles that function in Vista are file transfer and… oh that’s it.
No A2DP support, no headset profiles, no PIM profiles, no OBEX profiles, NOTHING. Even the basic Microsoft BT stack for XP supported Activesync over Bluetooth. It’s ridiculous and incorrigible that Microsoft would just leave these out.
Word from one of Microsoft’s coveted MVP’s was that you now have to approach the manufacturer of your Bluetooth device for a “driver” for your device. The problem with this mindset is that the manufacturers have banked on Bluetooth being a standard, and instead of using drivers, there would profiles that adhere to a standard interface so that any hardware architecture can interface with the profile making drivers specific to the device unnecessary. This universality is what Bluetooth technology is all about. That any device can work with any other device, no matter the brand as long as a generic profile—instructions on what do to do with the device – exist on either device. This is why you don’t have to install drivers on your Samsung cell phone when you join a Jabra headset to it. Why should you have to do this for the PC?
(1-10-2007 EDIT: After exhaustive research I came across a bit of information that makes a bit more sense in this particular context. Microsoft wanted to implement new architecture called SCO(Synchronus Connection-oriented) drivers for the devices. This means that drivers developed on XP wouldn’t work. The MS Stack is actually quite advanced, the problem is that the only way you can create a driver that works with it is to develop your profiles on a Vista machine. As we all know Vista isn’t exactly out. It’d be nice if this was something Microsoft had decided to announce. )
Because this was such an annoyance and disappointment I’ve written and article entitled Uncrippling Bluetooth in Windows Vista that can fix this issue but it’s still a major pain and Microsoft’s omission of something that worked fine previously is ultimately an insult to the computing community as a whole. In otherwords, you shouldn’t have to read a guide to do stuff that should already work out of the box.
The Disenchantment
At first glance, Vista is fantastic and phenomenal. Despite everything it does its speed is mind-bendingly quick given the right hardware and it’s fairly evident that the operating system is forward looking. It’s designed more for the hardware of tomorrow than for the hardware of today. Vista has made great advances in making it easier for new users of computers to find their place safely and securely.
The bottom line is simply this: Vista is not finished.
The rumor mill says that there are two current OS projects at Microsoft(other than Longhorn Server) one called Fiji which could more technically be called Service Pack 1. It contains all the features and/or drivers for Vista RTM(and subsequently the public release at the end of this month) that Microsoft had to strip out so that they could release the OS sometime this century. We’ve endured delay after delay after delay. And while we understand that with technology as advanced as Vista it’s going to take a bit more time to get it right, but I think we still expected something more for our time. Vista should not have been released. It is not finished and should still be in Beta. Microsoft should be ashamed at trying to pull a fast one over us so they could get their product out before Apple releases OS11. They should have at least called it Windows Vista Basic User’s Edition because that’s essentially what it is. It’s fine and great for the family computer or Media Center. But as soon as you try to do something remotely advanced or specialized that’s when you being to run into problems.
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Welcome
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So check it out, this is my little place, my little corner, my confinement on the net for my musings about technology and geek culture as I see it. I don’t have any particular goals associated with the creation of this website. My primary purpose here is to write technical articles, hardware and software reviews, opinionated editorials and pretty much cover the spectrum all the way from objective testing to unfounded fan-boyishness. It’s all going to be here. I have a lot of really great ideas and I’ve been told that this is the way for people to find them.
Who am I?
I’m a professional in Information Technology. This is very broad as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’ve had my hand in just about everything from serving in the Marine Corps. to being the n00b at a small networking company to having critical responsibilities in the country’s most secretive organizations. I’m versed in a great many trades and skills. I’m a network and systems engineer, as well as a reverse engineer and somewhat of a hacker. I try to be humble and always searching for new ways of doing things and new things to learn on a daily basis. I’m a problem solver. I may not know a whole lot about any particular subject(while others I know a great deal) but I’m still able to approach a problem objectively and break it down into stages and parts and help apply the problem to those people who have the skills and talents to come to a solution. What else? I’m a geek, a dork, a nerd, whatever you wanna call me. I fix and break things, often in the same day. Those who know me know that I have drive but can be extremely lazy. Let’s see how I do here on this site.
What can I do for you?
I hope that I can give you a place to come to see indepth reviews on hardware and software. I will periodically post solutions to some of the grander annoyances in terms of hardware and software. I will try to do obscure things with gadgets and provide descriptions of problems, bugs, and features. I will provide my opinion in general on the movement and actions of the big technology companies and I may even make a prediction or two(which I’ve been known to be scary good at.)
I have friends in both high and low places deep inside some of the biggest companies some will give me any information I want. You can only do your best to take what I post here as hearsay and with a grain of salt. I’ve been wrong before. 
You don’t have to believe me, just read. I will provide evidence so that you, the reader, can come to your own conclusions via critical thinking. I also hope I can help some folks out.
Peace.
***Update - 02-23-08: You can find the support forum on Dev-Hack.Com forums by clicking HERE
UnCrippling Bluetooth in Vista RTM
Introduction
If you’ve found this page, that means that you’re one of the many legitimate Vista RTM users who have a plethora of Bluetooth devices that you were hoping to join up to your new shiny Vista machine and enjoy because as with all Microsoft products, they’re just supposed to work, right? Wrong.
The Microsoft Bluetooth stack has been stripped of all profiles except OBEX file transfers and Mouse and Keyboard HID profiles. No stereo audio, no hands-free, no pda syncing, nothing. Why? No idea, there is no official word on the issue though there has been speculation in the community that perhaps Microsoft is trying to hold tight to increasing stability by decreasing functionality. This is ok for most folks. Just not the rest of us who are constantly wireless and in need of information, syncing, audio, phone calls, what have you.
This guide is an in-depth tutorial on getting complete and enhanced Bluetooth functionality in all version of Windows Vista RTM both 32bit and 64bit editions.
First a little bit of legal.
Disclaimer
Dev-Hack.com or its administrators provide this information for educational uses only and while great effort has gone into ensuring the accuracy and value of the information included herein, it cannot be guaranteed to work for everyone and thusly, we accept no responsibility if you fuck up. J
Method
We have broken this installation into a number of steps listed below.
- Download installation packages
- Determine which Bluetooth device you have
- Preparing the new installation
- Removing old drivers completely
- Disabling Microsoft Bluetooth stack completely
- Installing WIDCOMM drivers
- Patching your WIDCOMM installation
- Installing your device
- Enjoying unrestricted Bluetooth functionality
UPDATE(06/21/07): It has been determined that through this method, A2DP(stereo bluetooth audio) does NOT function properly. A workaround/fix is currently being researched so sit tight.
Step 1 -=- Download Installation Packages
First thing to do is get all of the tools you’re going to need to be able to do this. This includes the WIDCOMM drivers appropriate to your system, the patcher program, and optionally, you can download this guide in PDF format for offline viewing.
You may download the WIDCOMM 5.1.0.1100 drivers along with the patcher from Dev-Hack.Com’s downloads section. The packages will be clearly marked to avoid any confusion.
NOTE: If you know of WIDCOMM already you may be asking, “Well why aren’t we going to use the latest version of the driver?” That’s a good question and with it comes a good answer. After version 5.1.0.1100 the driver stops supporting 3rd party chipsets, that means that you all with your CSR chipsets would be very frustrated after having completed this guide. In addition, the patcher utility isn’t of the latest version however is much easier to use and has been extensively tested and confirmed to function properly with this version of WIDCOMM drivers.
Step 2 -=- Determining Which Bluetooth Device You Have
Once you have downloaded and extracted the drivers, it’s time to minimize your folder and head into your device manager to determine exactly what hardware you have installed. Make sure you have your Bluetooth adapter inserted in your computer(working or not).
- Right click “Computer” on your desktop, and then select Properties
- On the top left click Device Manager.
- Expand your Bluetooth tree to see your Bluetooth radio(if installed) or look at Other Devices to see if it appears there(if not installed).
- Double click your Bluetooth radio device(The name may vary depending upon manufacturer and model). Then click the Details tab.
- Click the drop down box and select Device ID
Now with that window open go back into the extracted drivers folder. We need to check and see if the installer already supports your device.
- In the root folder go into the appropriate folder for your system. i.e. If you’re in 32 bit Vista, enter Win32. For 64 bit, enter Win64.
- Open up btwusb.inf in notepad (should already be the default viewer so you can just double click it.)
-
Now look at your hardware ID in the device manager it should be formatted like this:
USB\VID_XXXX&PID_XXXX where “XXXX” is a 4 digit hexadecimal number(There may be revision information after the basic Hardware ID’s such as: USB\VID_413C&PID_8126&REV_0100).
- Quickly copy or memorize the 4 digit number after VID.
- In notepad hit Ctrl+F to open the find dialog. Enter your VID as VID_XXXX where the XXXX is your four digit number specific to your device. Hit Enter.
- If your device is found, then look again and confirm that your VID and PID numbers match exactly then and only then may you skip to Step 4 -=- Removing Old Drivers Completely
- If you did not find your VID and PID then please continue on to Step 3 -=- Preparing the New Installation.
Step 3 -=- Preparing the New Installation
Since your device wasn’t specifically included in the installer script that doesn’t necessarily mean that the drivers aren’t compatible. There’s a very good chance that they are and should work fine (since most Bluetooth devices are created alike and their functionality is determined by the profiles they support). In this step we need to modify the installer script to include your specific device. You should already have btwusb.inf opened up for your specific platform. Add the following lines
-
Under [ControlFlags] section add
- ExcludeFromSelect=USB\VID_XXXX&PID_XXXX (change the XXXX with the numbers from your device)
-
This varies for different versions of windows.
-
32bit windows:
-
Under [WIDCOMM.NTx86.5.1] add
- %****.DeviceDesc%=BTWUSB, USB\VID_XXXX&PID_XXXX ; My BT USB Dongle Where “****” is a string or single word that’s all caps and would be the name of your hardware vendor. EXAMPLE: %DellFangorn.DeviceDesc%=BRSMARTUSB, USB\VID_413C&PID_8126
-
64bit Windows:
-
Under [WIDCOMM.NTamd64] add
- %****.DeviceDesc%=BTWUSB, USB\VID_XXXX&PID_XXXX ; My BT USB Dongle Where “****” is a string or single word that’s all caps and would be the name of your hardware vendor. EXAMPLE: %DellFangorn.DeviceDesc%=BRSMARTUSB, USB\VID_413C&PID_8126
- Save and Close the file.
Step 4 -=- Removing Old Drivers Completely
What we’re going to do here here is effectively remove the installer script files from Windows’ view. So now when the device is found it won’t be able to find a driver. And you should select “Don’t ask Again” when prompted to search for new drivers for your device after you uninstall it.
Now, if you still have your device manager window open and you already have the Windows or manufacturer driver installed, please uninstall ANYTHING Bluetooth related. (HINT: If you remove the Bluetooth Radio device first, it will take everything else with it.) You can uninstall devices simply by Right clicking them and selecting Uninstall.
Step 5 -=- Disabling Microsoft Bluetooth Stack Completely
Now that the installation is prepared we have to make sure that Microsoft’s automatic and crippled Bluetooth driver doesn’t just jump in the way and automatically install itself when you’re trying to install the new driver. We have to disable Microsoft’s installer script for Bluetooth devices.
- Navigate to C:\Windows\inf\
- Rename bth.inf to bth.inf.old;
-
Rename bth.pnf to bth.pnf.old
Once everything is uninstalled, close all files and dialogs and restart your machine.
NOTE: This is important! If you are running Windows Vista x64, you absolutely HAVE to press F8 on boot. Right after your BIOS post, pound F8 until you’re presented with a menu. You MUST select “Disable Driver Signing Enforcment” or you will not be able to install this driver. As of yet, there is no other way to disable this other than attaching a debugger to the kernel which isn’t practical.
Step 6 -=- Installing WIDCOMM Drivers
And now is the time you’ve all been waiting for. Time to run the installer for the WIDCOMM Drivers.(Please see the bright red note above if you’re running Windows Vista RTM x64). Make sure your Bluetooth Device is unplugged from your machine.
- Browse to where you have the drivers unpacked.
- Browse directly into your platform folder(i.e. Win32 or Win64)
- Do not run Setup.exe
instead run Inst.exe.
- Go through the installer, when it comes up and says that no Bluetooth device detected, click CANCEL to continue the installation without installing a device first. It will always say this even if your device is internal or still connected.
- Windows will bitch at you for not installing signed drivers about 11 times so go ahead and make sure you’re clicking away at “Install Anyway“
-
The WIDCOMM drivers will install the following virtual devices and profiles:
- Bluetooth Communications ports(COM 4 and 5)
- Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver
- Bluetooth Virtual HID Mouse
- Bluetooth Virtual HID Keyboard
- Hands-Free Audio
- Stereo Audio(also known in xp as High Quality Bluetooth Audio or A2DP)
- Once Vista is done installing the various devices then click Finish in the installer to close it.
You’ll now notice You’ll have the Bluetooth icon down in the task bar which should be red and a My Bluetooth Places icon on your desktop. Do not click either of them yet. We’re almost done.
Step 7 -=- Patching Your WIDCOMM Installation
Before we restart, you should make sure you have available the WIDCOMM patcher that you downloaded and optionally this guide in PDF form that you can download from Dev-Hack.Com.
The next portion is very simple.
- Restart your machine in safe-mode by mashing F8 right after the bios post and selecting Safe Mode with Networking.
- Once in safe mode, browse to where you have downloaded and extracted the patcher.
- Run the patcher by double clicking the executable.
- This is where it gets slightly tricky. In the drop down box, you have to find your Bluetooth device. If you added your device to the installer script for the drivers, then you should already be able to recognize it. Look for the beginning of the device description. Once you’re sure you’ve found your device, select it and click save.
- Restart your machine.(x64 users, remember you have to disable Driver Signing Enforcement at EVERY boot, sorry)
Step 8 -=- Installing Your Device
Once you’re back into windows, do the following.
- Plug your Bluetooth adapter in(if it is external)
- If your adapter is internal, then open up the Device Manager and click Action>Scan for Hardware Changes to initiate the installation process.
- When it asks you to search for drivers, select to Browse for the location yourself.
- Browse to the following: C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\bin
- Then click ok and the installer will find the drivers assuming you correctly edited the installer script.
- Once the device is installed(if successful) You’re ready to rock.
Step 9 -=- Enjoying Your Bluetooth Experience
Once everything is installed and patched you should be able to right click the Bluetooth icon down in the task bar, select Begin Using Bluetooth. With any luck, you’ll start the Bluetooth Wizard and be able to choose which profiles your computer will provide to devices. If you get a license error, then something went wrong with the patching or you didn’t choose the right device in the patcher. If you get a device not found, then I recommend completely uninstalling the device and starting from Step 6.
Should you need to Uninstall and return to your default driver(no idea why you’d want to.) then you need to open up Device Manager then, through the control panel, remove the WIDCOMM Drivers(Add/Remove Programs). The drivers will prompt you to remove your device. You can do that or just right click your Bluetooth radio in the Device Manager and click Uninstall, the driver uninstallation will resume automatically.
Supporting Dev-Hack -=- Donations
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Thanks for reading!