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Jim Scott Author

Level 1

18 points

Trick for Pairing Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse With Windows 7 in BC 3.1

My Mac:
Mid-2007 iMac 20", 2.4 GHz; OS X 10.6.2; Windows 7 Home; Boot Camp 3.1

My Problem:
No matter what I tried, including all kinds of tips and tricks found in this forum and elsewhere on the web, I could not get my Apple aluminum bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth Mighty Mouse to pair in Windows 7. Windows 7's bluetooth setup panel would see them, from time to time, but never connected.

The same pair connected quite easily with Snow Leopard, and the keyboard connected before I installed BC 3.1 in Win 7 (never did get the MM to connect in Win 7 with BC 3.0). But with BC 3.1 in Win 7, it was no dice for either one until I made an accidental discovery.

While prepping another Apple bluetooth aluminum keyboard for my wife's Mac Mini, it was seen by my iMac's Win 7, which wanted to pair with it.

Aha! A Big Clue! The Win 7 BC 3.1 generic bluetooth drivers wanted to pair with an aluminum keyboard that wasn't already paired with the iMac. So, I booted back into Snow Leopard, connected a USB mouse and keyboard, renamed the bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and then deleted them. I rebooted back into Win 7, then easily set up both renamed mouse and keyboard which paired quickly with Windows.

Note that I first tried deleting them from the Snow Leopard side first, but Win 7 still wouldn't pair with them. That's when I went back to Snow Leopard and renamed them but didn't pair them with the iMac until it was booted into Win 7.

Finally, I rebooted back into Snow Leopard and paired the keyboard and mouse with OS X. Done.

Hope this trick/tip/hint helps someone else with keyboard and mouse bluetooth pairing problems.

iMac 2.4 20" (Mid-2007), Mac OS X (10.6.2), Windows 7 Home, Boot Camp 3.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2010 7:36 PM

40 replies

Feb 11, 2011 3:23 AM in response to Jim Scott

Jim:

Know it's been a while since you posted.
As the Mighty Mouse is out of production, and the roller balls tend to die, I have attempted to install a Logitech V470 BT Mouse. No issue on MAC OS, but Windows 7 in Boot Camp won't properly pair. It installs, then disappears claiming a pairing problem.
I tried uninstalling from MAC side, but no success. Any ideas on how to follow your process of changing the mouse name and reinstalling in Bootcamp?

Feb 11, 2011 3:37 AM in response to Jim Scott

Jim:
Another issue - when I open up the Bluetooth panel in System Preferences, the drop down you referred to offers "Update Device Name", which doesn't appear to allow for any changing of the item name. What am I missing here? (OS 10.6.6).
I do feel kinda dopey. I'm sure it all goes back to renaming my Logitech V470 Mouse - but how?

Feb 11, 2011 11:54 AM in response to Jim Scott

Jim:
More discoveries.
In order to activate the "rename" function, I uninstalled the Logitech V470 Mouse.
Then, no problem re-naming my various Apple Mighty Mice, Magic Touchpad and Magic Mouse. The Mighty Mice, after re-naming on MAC OS all (3) easily paired on my Windows 7 Bootcamp Partition. The Logitech Mouse is another story. It will not allow itself to be renamed. And, while it installs, it also disappears in 10 - 15 seconds. A re-try at pairing gives an error relating to pairing code, even though a double-click on the icon in the Bluetooth Items window brings up the details and shows the appropriate pairing code.
Bottom line for now, is to hoard and nurse along my 3 Mighty Mice (their track balls don't always work properly) until either Apple (bootcamp) or Logitech come up with something. Logitech indicates that tehy DO NOT SUPPORT Bootcamp. If you have any insights, they will be welcome.

Feb 16, 2011 11:30 AM in response to GeneonMAC

SUCCESS!
With another try at installation this morning, another trick pulled off a working installation.
Clicked on the Bluetooth icon on the toolbar, which opened the Bluetooth Device window. Then chose "add a device", discovered the Logitech V470 BT Mouse and let Windows 7 automatically install. As soon as the initial "Lazer Travel Mouse" icon appeared in the Bluetooth Device window, double click it (with either the touchpad or mighty mouse) to open the "Properties" window, which will stay open, even after the icon disappears in the Bluetooth Device window.
The Properties window has four (4) tabs - General; Hardware; Services; Bluetooth. Click on "Services" and see an unchecked box next to "Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc. (HID)".
I checked the box and ... the correct driver (re?)installed and the mouse immediately began to function properly. It continues to operate properly after several back and forth re-boots between MAC OS 10.6.6 and Windows 7.
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.6.6) Logitech V470 BT Mouse installation - Windows 7 in Bootcamp!

siu-85

Level 1

8 points

May 1, 2011 4:04 PM in response to Jim Scott

If you are using bootcamp and Windows 7 and cannot pair your bluetooth Apple mouse (it just hangs there, "connecting to device...") try the following:

Go to the Bluetooth devices and select "Add a device"
Put the Apple mouse in discover mode (close the LED cover and then open it)
When the mouse appears in the device window right click on it and select Properties
Select the "Services" tab and then check the box that says "Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc. (HID).
Click OK to close the window.
Select Next in the Add a device window.

The Apple mouse should now pair up with Windows.

Jun 8, 2011 5:04 PM in response to Jim Scott

I've had a 2008 iMac for over 3 years now. THat is how long i've been trying to get the Apple keyboard to work with Windows (Xp, Vista and 7) over bluetooth.

I can confird that I have finally gotten the keyboard and now a mouse! to work.

When you attempt to pair the devices (keyboard and in my case also a Bluetooth Logitech mouse) you need to right click on the device when it is found and click on properties. It will bring up the available services of each devices, The only one available should be Bluetooth HID Device. Check that off.

Then it should pair instantly.!!!!!

LONG YEARS OF RESEARCH FOR A SOLUTION 🙂

Dec 7, 2011 6:47 PM in response to Jim Scott

That was perfect. I could finally make them work after reading your post. Thank you!

Feb 27, 2012 8:44 AM in response to Jim Scott

Worked like a charm. Thanks Jim!

mveplus

Level 1

26 points

Feb 28, 2015 8:58 PM in response to Jim Scott

Great it worked for me too!

Old iMac 24" with Snow Leopard and Windows 7 SP1 bootcamp 3.1: Keyboard was working fine with SL, bi no way to pair it with Windows 7 - it was able to see it and never got to pairing screen!

Apple solution was not working it my case and another fix I found by turning-on "Broadcom 802.11n Wireless advanced adapter settings "Bluetooth Collaboration" from Disabled to Enabled did not work, because iMac 24" bluetooth was independent bluetooth board from ANATEL Model: A1115.

Thanks for this simple solution!

Sep 23, 2015 10:45 AM in response to Jim Scott

Thank you for posting I needed to configure a triple boot on a mac mini 2014 (mac os, windows 8.1 and ubuntu) and with your help I did it.

(i'm using a logitech bluetooth keyboard with touchpad but did all configuration with usb kb and mouse)

So here are the steps I used in case someone needs them

(I've been on and off on this when I have a break and its not accurate)

(1. install mac os)

2. install refind (if refind disappears further ahead you only have to reinstall it)

3. create 2 partitions (1 used 100gb for each new OS)

4. install windows

5. install ubuntu

6. config BT in ubuntu it is straightforward (for mac mini 2014 no additional drivers needed although every time you need to logon you must turn kb off and on about 30 secs after login window appears) - maybe someone can figure a solution for this part

7. config refind to default mac os (after ubuntu restart it don’t detect kb and so you need to go to mac os automatically)

8. in macos rename the bluetooth keyboard

BUT DONT DELETE

Here is the change from Jim's solution

everytime I deleted on mac os it paired with windows without any problem but after that I lost it on mac os (and then when paired with mac I lost on windows - it was there but didn't work)

9. in windows reset keyb (in my case its a button on kb) and pair. shutdown windows

10. it will work after windows and you can now log on to any os (with the special treatment for ubuntu)

Trick for Pairing Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse With Windows 7 in BC 3.1