Resolve issues with Widcomm Bluetooth drivers and SP2
February 6, 2006 18 Comments
This is a small guide for those who installed the Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and are experiencing problems with Widcomm Bluetooth software. To overcome such difficulties, read on…
If you install the WIDCOMM BTW 1.4.2.10 Bluetooth software on Windows XP SP2, you will get the following error as soon as you double click on the blue-red system tray icon:
“Your Bluetooth Software license does not include use with this Bluetooth Device”
After that you will be asked to point to a valid license.dat file. However if you select the
license.dat that came with your manufacturer’s driver (be it on CD-ROM or downloaded from the manufacturer’s website) it still won’t work.
The reason for this problem:
In the Service Pack 2, Microsoft included a generic Bluetooth driver, naturally being
WHQL-certified — it’s directly from Microsoft. The WIDCOMM Bluetooth driver however is not WHQL-certified, so Windows XP continues using the generic driver. This interferes with the WIDCOMM Bluetooth software resulting in the above error.
To force Windows XP to use the WIDCOMM driver, perform the following steps:
Don’t plug in the Bluetooth device yet.
If you have any Bluetooth software apart from the included Windows drivers installed, deinstall them and reboot. I am not sure if this is necessary, but just in case.
Install the WIDCOMM BTW 1.4.2.10 Bluetooth software. When it asks you to plug in the
Bluetooth device and click OK, don’t, and click cancel instead.
When the WIDCOMM setup has finished, plug in your Bluetooth device and let Windows install the driver. (There should be two Bluetooth icons in the system tray; one blue-white: this is the Windows driver – and one blue-red: this is the WIDCOMM driver which is deactivated.)
Now go to the Device Manager, right click on the “Generic Bluetooth Radio” or “Bluetooth USB Device” and select “update driver”. Don’t let Windows XP connect to the internet, then select “Choose software from a list or specified location”. In the next window, select “Don’t search, but select the driver to install”.
In the next window, activate “Show compatible hardware” (if it isn’t activated already) and
select your manufacturer’s driver instead of the “Generic Bluetooth Radio” driver.
Click next until the new driver is installed. Now the WIDCOMM system tray icon should be
blue-white as well, activated and ready to use.
If you now double click on “My Bluetooth Places” (e.g. on the desktop), the WIDCOMM software installation will be continued and finished.
This should solve any compatibility issues with the WIDCOMM BTW 1.4.2.10 Bluetooth software and Microsoft Windows XP SP2.
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Boy – how frustrating – I had this problem and have tried MANY different installs and re-installs but I cannot get my icon back to blue and white like it used to be. after installing SP2.
I’ve have done all of the things mentioned above and my Bluetooth device still doesn’t work. This is extremely frustrating.
Thanks for sharing information; it works perfect!
Widcomm Bluetooth Software 1.4.2 Build 10
Windows XP Pro PL SP2
IBM R51e
fggfdgfdh
It still asks for the license file. I’ve searched my whole hard disk and there isn’t one. I’m using the distribution from Belkin’s own web site.
Im also having the same problem.its completely annoying.what the hell is Microsoft up to?y they r doing like this.can anybody tell me how to fix this..i tried the above step several times and i didnt even find the BT general Radio or anything like that, what i can find is this bloody BroadCom Bluetooth USB device.pls help me.
I am having the exact same problem as Rob Stiles! My Dongle is a Belkin, and I downloaded the driver directly from site, updated driver for it, but still is nutty. Please help!
Same thing here, tried this several times…
I have a belkin F8T003 v.2, and would like to use my motorola h505 as a headset. It somehow recognizes the device, but I cannot use it as one for my computer.
I have a red/blue icon in the tray.
I can’t get my hands on a Belkin so it’s really difficult for me to say what the problem is.
There is nothing related with the device drivers here. The problem concerns the license that comes packed in the CD.
I happen to have bought 2 Targus BT dongles, both came with exact same CD pack and one of them has a broken/invalid license (sigh). When I install this in either Windows XP or Vista I get the same error – Your Bluetooth Software license does not include use with this Bluetooth Device.
What I’m doing now is trying to install the same license on both machines for the BT dongles to work… hopefully this will do.
I have WinXP with SP3 and Targus ACB20EU Bluetooth dongle. I followed the above mentioned guide and it worked just fine. Though I have few comments about this guide.
After I installed WIDCOMM software (Targus ACB20EU Software v5.1.0.1700 for WinME, 2000 and XP) I didn’t had 2 icons in system tray as described in the guide. I only had blue/red icon. Then I plugged my BT dongle in and it started “New Hardware Guide” in stead of installing MS Generic BT driver. Then I followed the guide and picked the only one compatible driver on the list. And that was it. Voilá. Icon turned to be blue/white and everything is now working just fine.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not working for me
At the first try it didn’t work, but I didn’t uninstall the bluetooth software that came with my usb bluetooth device (targus).
At the second try I did EXACTLY as you wrote and then it worked like a charm!
THANK YOU!!
where can I download this driver? If you have, can I ask for a copy from anyone of you here through ym ery_yre@yahoo.com? thank you
It worked on Vista as well. Many thanks!
dear sir or madam
i’m useing widcomm btw 1.4.2 build when i install i got a massage ur licence no. 6 i don’t about this problam so plz
i’ve still problam plz solve my problam
thanx and regard
aziz qazi
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