If this is your first time encountering wirelessly connection, then you probably have a question about how to enable and configure Bluetooth on your laptop. This can be done in different ways. It's also important to note that these will change depending on the operating system installed on your laptop. That is, the methods for enabling this type of wireless communication on Windows 8.1 will differ, for example, from Windows 7. So, let's find out how to connect Bluetooth on a laptop.
Although Bluetooth is becoming a thing of the past, many users still use this feature
The first step is to make sure that the Bluetooth adapter is installed correctly. It can be built-in or external. If the devices are connected to the computer, then you can proceed to installing drivers (of course, if they are not already installed). More about this below. This stage is important, since the operation of the Bluetooth wireless module completely depends on the drivers.
If you have become the proud owner of an external “Blue Tooth” adapter (that’s how Bluetooth is translated from English), let’s figure out how to connect it and configure it correctly. First of all, read the instructions, which will help you accurately install the adapter into the desired connector. Such equipment usually comes with a disk that will install the appropriate drivers for the correct operation of the device. There should not be any difficulties here, since prompts are displayed on the monitor screen that will help you carry out the steps correctly until the installation is completed.
With built-in Bluetooth, things are a little different. The necessary utilities and drivers are preinstalled on the laptop in Windows system manufacturer. Therefore, the computer does not need to install anything additional out of the box. However, if you have subjected your PC to any tests during which your drivers were removed, then you need to install them immediately. It happens that the laptop comes with a driver disk. All you have to do is insert it into the drive and follow the instructions on the display. If there is none, then refer to the official website of the PC manufacturer. In the Drivers section, select your computer model and OS version. Then he will find the entire driver package for your device. You will need to find and download specifically for Bluetooth and install them.
Now you can proceed to actually turning on the module of this wireless type of communication. Let's divide this process into different versions Windows operating system. This will make it easier for you to find the necessary instructions and sequence of actions. Please note that the inclusion of an external adapter will not be considered, since it is not fundamentally different from the built-in one. Therefore, we will tell you about universal ways to enable and configure it.
Windows 7
There are no problems with connecting the device and turning on the Blue Tooth module in the seven. The actions that the user must take are quite simple:
- If your laptop has a physical switch, then simply slide it towards ON. Or use the Fn key combination and the button with the Bluetooth icon.
- If there is a Bluetooth icon in the notification area (bottom right, where the clock is), right-click on it to open its settings menu. There you can fully control its functions, connect other devices, and so on.
Windows 8 and 8.1
- In Windows 8, launch the right pane and click on Settings. In the tab with changes to computer settings, there is a menu item “Wireless network”. All you have to do is switch the slider to ON mode. To establish a connection with other devices, launch “Devices” in the same tab. There you can add any device for further connection to the laptop.
- In Windows 8.1, the wireless connection setup is slightly different. In the same right pane, launch a tab as in previous paragraph. But now you will need the “Computer and Devices” menu item and then Bluetooth. There will be no sliders or switches here, since everything happens automatically.
Windows 10
Perhaps Windows 10 is not as popular today as other versions of the operating system from Microsoft, but we will also consider enabling the module for it. We can say that the actions here will be somewhat simpler, although the principle is the same. Let's do the following. In the “Search” field that appears on the bottom panel, write “Bluetooth Settings” and click on the icon of the corresponding application. Move the switch slider to the desired position and save the settings. That's it.
To enable Bluetooth on your laptop, you need to do a few fairly simple steps. First, make sure that the laptop supports this technology. Secondly, determine your operating system: Windows or Mac. After that, go to the appropriate section in the table of contents and go through step by step instructions to turn on this device.
How to enable bluetooth Windows 7, Vista
Check the presence of the module in the list of devices “Bluetooth radio module” (step 3).
Necessary steps to enable bluetooth on a laptop:
1. Go to the “Start” menu, find “Control Panel” there and follow the link.
2. Find “Device Manager” in the control panel.
3. In the list of devices, find the line “Bluetooth radio modules”. Right-click on the appropriate model (highlighted in yellow) and select Properties. 
4. Go to the “Driver” tab and if it is missing, go to “Update”. If everything is normal, close the window.
6. In the “Network and Sharing Center” shared access» Go to “Change adapter settings”.
7. Right-click “Bluetooth Network Connections” and select “enable.” 
Windows 10
How to enable Bluetooth on Mac
On Mac laptops the process is even simpler:
1. Click on the "Bluetooth" icon;
2. Select the "turn on bluetooth" option.
Features of individual laptop models
On ASUS or Acer laptops there is a light that tells us that bluetooth is turned on. On them, a burning light bulb carries completely different information. Laptops have a sticker on the case showing the main characteristics of this laptop. On these stickers we can see either just an icon in the form of the letter “B” or goes full word Bluetooth. Switching on is done by pressing the button above the keyboard in the upper left corner.
There are two more options:
Not all brands are installed on laptops special drivers, which can be installed from the manufacturer’s official website.
Checking the correct connection
First, check how bluetooth works on any device. When you try to connect your phone to other devices, in the program window you can see phones that were detected with bluetooth enabled and available. 
Above is how it looks on an iPhone. In the “Settings” section, the “Bluetooth” subsection, you can find and check the functionality of the Bluetooth module.
What is BluetoothBluetooth is a convenient and easy-to-use device with which people exchange data.
There is a pressing question: how to turn on bluetooth on a computer? Let's consider options with different Windows release series.
How to turn on bluetooth
Bluetooth is a simple device and turning it on is not difficult. The only thing for him proper operation drivers need to be installed.
They can not always be found complete with the device itself when purchased in a store. Often you have to search and download on the Internet. Don't be discouraged - it's not hard.
Important!
If you want Bluetooth to work correctly, install licensed drivers.
Enabling on Windows 7
Let's look at how to enable Bluetooth on a computer with Windows 7.
Some PCs have built-in Bluetooth. If yours is not like this. You need to purchase it separately in the store along with an adapter.
You also need to know whether you received drivers along with the data transfer device? If yes, go ahead and install them.
If not, you need to find the exact name of the device and scour the Internet in order to find these same installation programs and download them.
For the device to start functioning, you need to combine it with a computer - connect it. Then turn it on and make sure the user can find it.
Then you need to click on “Start”, select "Devices and Printers" and go down to the “devices” item. Here you need to look for the name of your PC, then right-click on it "bluetooth settings" and select your computer name.
In the tab "bluetooth settings" must be checked "disable bluetooth adapter".
Now you need to connect Bluetooth itself.
There are 2 options:
1 First option: “Start” / "Devices and Printers"/ “Devices” /now you need to find your computer by name and right-click on it./ "Bluetooth Settings"/RS name/ disable "Bluetooth Adapter". Ready.
2 Second option: Right-click on the icon "Bluetooth devices". It's located on the taskbar. Then find and activate the item "Enable adapter". Ready
Activate the “Enable adapter” item
In the future, the connection between the computer and Bluetooth will be maintained independently and established at the moment when they are within range of each other. It's done.
Now let's look at how to turn on Bluetooth on a laptop.
Bluetooth on a laptop with Windows 7
When purchasing a laptop, a disk with software. If it is not there, you need to go to the manufacturer’s website and find it, and then download everything you need. Install the driver.
The computer will now see the new hardware. This will show up in Device Manager. Install utilities for proper operation. Their task is to connect to devices even without a wired connection.
Now let's move on to the PC itself.
Sometimes the relevant question is where to find bluetooth in a laptop. Go to the task manager - it's there.
If the device is not active - “engage it”
Enable on Windows 10
Let's look at how to enable Bluetooth on a computer in Windows 10.
You need to follow several steps to connect Bluetooth to Windows 10 on a laptop. Again, we determine whether the drivers are installed with the adapter? This can be done through the task manager.
Go to “Device Manager”
Go to the control panel, open the window "equipment and sound". We need a section "devices and printers", and in it "Task Manager". Open it.
You need to carefully study the list and find the Bluetooth column, click on it and get into a dialog box where you can see if the adapter is connected.
If it says unknown device, this may mean that the adapter is connected, but the drivers are not installed.
Even if you have to install it yourself, it won't take much time. You insert the device into usb port and wait for Windows to install everything itself.
- Now it's time to find out if it was turned on?
- When Bluetooth is turned on, its icon is visible in the quick settings panel at the bottom
When connecting equipment to Bluetooth, the first thing you need to do is make sure that “detection” is turned on.
If this does not work, it can be assumed that the item being sought is outside the range of the search device.
The perimeter in which the adapter operates is at most 50 meters, this is with a very good model. But in rooms with things, its coverage area is significantly reduced.
It is not uncommon for situations to arise when the adapter cannot find a device because the drivers are not working properly. In such a situation, you should simply uninstall all the drivers and reinstall them again.
Bluetooth (bluetooth - “blue tooth”) is a special standard for wireless communication, i.e. using electromagnetic waves. It is used to connect two mobile devices and transferring data between them. This technology was originally developed to enable wireless headsets to work in mobile phones, which allowed for hands-free conversations. But this does not limit the use of this technology in a laptop and other mobile gadgets– You can also use it to transfer files.
Everyone has long known about another wireless communication standard – Wi-Fi. What are the differences between the new standard and Wi-Fi? Their main differences are:
- Different frequency ranges.
- Bluetooth has a shorter range.
- When using Bluetooth, there is no need to configure the hardware configuration.
- This standard cannot be configured local network, i.e. connect more than two devices at the same time.
- The blue tooth has a significantly higher transmission rate.
As a rule, a modern laptop already has a built-in wireless communication radio module. But if you don’t have one (or one of the subscribers is a desktop PC), then you can buy an external adapter. It resembles a flash drive and connects to a USB port.
You can find out whether a laptop with Windows 7 has a built-in radio module, as well as see its status and enable it using the task manager. To do this, go to the control panel, select “Administration”, open “Computer Management”, then select “Device Manager”. If there is no “Bluetooth radio module” item in the list of installed devices, then the laptop does not have a Bluetooth module. If it is there, but there is a question or exclamation mark next to it, then this means that the adapter drivers require updating or reinstallation, but this is a topic for a separate article. When you purchase an external adapter, it usually comes with a driver CD. After the device driver is installed, Windows 7 will detect it, and the user can verify this by similar actions.
This condition in a laptop with Windows 7 can occur for three reasons:
- The radio adapter is turned off and needs to be turned on.
- The adapter is faulty.
- Adapter drivers are not installed or need to be reinstalled.
We are only interested in the first case - when the corresponding adapter is turned off and we need to turn it on. This can be done in several ways.
Standard way to turn on Bluetooth
There is an icon for this radio module in the notification area of the Windows 7 taskbar.
To configure the adapter status, you need to click on it, a menu will appear. Next, click on the “Add device” item.
Using hardware
There are laptop models equipped with hardware buttons to turn the adapter on/off. If there is one, then it must be set to the ON position.
Turn on using the Fn key
Most laptops have an Fn key on their keyboard. It is designed to control the status of various equipment installed in the computer, including bluetooth. The top row of keys are function keys (usually F1 - F12), which, when pressed together with Fn, performs such control. In a laptop, depending on its manufacturer, the “blue tooth” state control key may correspond to various function keys, as a rule, these are F3-F5. Such a key must have a corresponding icon.
Sometimes both wireless adapters are made in the same module, so they are turned on and off simultaneously using such a function key.
Via Device Manager
How to enter the Windows Device Manager has already been said at the beginning of the article. Once you enter it, you can see a picture with a list of all installed devices.
We are interested in the item “Bluetooth radio modules”. Open it, select the appropriate adapter and right-click on it. If this module is enabled, then the menu that appears will contain the “Disable” item, otherwise – the “Enable” item. This is what we need - click on it, the adapter turns on.
Enabling the radio module using third-party utilities
Depending on the manufacturer, there are a number of third-party utilities that can be used to enable the radio adapter. These are utilities such as:
- Wireless Console (ASUS laptops).
- ReadyComm (Lenovo laptops).
- Utility Center (HP laptops).
They are all very easy to use and easy to find on the Internet. After installing them in Windows 7, a Bluetooth logo icon appears in the notification bar. Right-clicking will bring up a menu containing the item “Enable/Disable Bluetooth Adapter.”
Using the command line
This method of turning on the radio communication module is more difficult than all those described above, so you should only resort to it if none of the methods already given helped. To enable this, you will need the DevCon utility - it can be easily found on the Internet and downloaded. If it is downloaded in an archived state, then the archive must be unpacked. The program must be placed in the C:\Windows\system32 directory. In addition to this utility, you will also need the identifier (ID) of the radio module. You can find it using the Windows 7 Device Manager.
In it, open the “Bluetooth radio modules” item, right-click on the desired module and select “Properties” in the menu that appears. A window will open in which you need to go to the “Details” tab, and select “Hardware ID” in the “Property” drop-down list. In the “Value” window, the first line contains the ID of the selected radio communication module.
Next we enter the mode command line. To do this, click “Start”, enter cmd in the bottom search line, a window opens with the value “cmd” in the top line. Click on it and a command line window will open. In it we enter a line like devcon enable ID (without quotes). Instead of ID, you must specify the hardware ID obtained from the device manager. Press Enter, the DevCon utility starts, which turns on the disabled radio module. 
Almost every modern laptop from any manufacturer (lenovo, asus, toshiba, hp, dell, samsung, msi, etc.) is equipped with a built-in bluetooth module. Why is it needed? The functionality of this interface is extensive. Using Bluetooth, you can exchange various data with other devices (tablet, smartphone) without using USB or Wi-Fi. In addition, it is easy to connect a mouse, keyboard or wireless headphones through it.
However, few people use this feature. Why? Most often due to the fact that they simply do not know how to turn on bluetooth on a laptop. Although there is nothing complicated about it. Moreover, in this article you will find all the necessary information.
The first thing you need to find out is whether your laptop is equipped with a bluetooth module? After all, the presence of a corresponding button/switch on a laptop keyboard does not always indicate the presence of an adapter. Manufacturers sometimes save money by not installing this module on their equipment. Moreover, in lately This information transmission technology is not very popular. It has been supplanted by Wi-Fi and USB.
But how can you tell if a laptop has bluetooth? There are several options:
- Go to the manufacturer's official website. Find your laptop model there and carefully study its characteristics. If your device is equipped with a Bluetooth adapter, you will definitely find out about it here.
- Inspect the bottom cover of the laptop. Do you see a label there with the bluetooth brand logo and inscription? Then the device has this function.
- You can also find out about the presence/absence of a Bluetooth adapter through Device Manager. This is quite easy to do. For example, in Windows 8 and 10, right-click on the Start icon. Then select "Device Manager". In the list that opens, you just need to find the line “Bluetooth radio modules”. If it is not there (and there is no other mention of Bluetooth), then it will not be possible to enable it. The corresponding module is simply not installed on the laptop.
Turn on bluetooth via hotkeys
So, you were able to find bluetooth in your laptop and are now sure that your device has this function. In this case, all that remains is to figure out how to activate or turn it off. This can be done in different ways. The simplest is by pressing certain buttons on the laptop keyboard.
Almost all manufacturers (Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Sony, etc.) provide a special key for turning on Bluetooth on a laptop. Usually this is one of the function buttons - F1-F12. It works in conjunction with the Fn key (located at the bottom left, next to Ctrl).
Finding out which button activates the function is easy. There will be a bluetooth icon on it. Exactly like in the picture. Reminds me of an antenna. You will only need to press this key in combination with Fn. In addition, there are laptops where Bluetooth is activated using a special switch. It is usually located on the side next to various connectors or above the keyboard.
How to check if bluetooth was turned on? A blue icon will appear in the notification panel on the right. Also, some laptops have a special indicator. If it lights up white, yellow, blue or green(depending on the model), it means you managed to turn on Bluetooth. What to do next?
- Right-click on the icon.
- Select the “Add device” item.
- After which the laptop OS will start scanning. As soon as the search for Bluetooth devices is completed, you can select the equipment to which you need to connect to exchange music, videos, images and other files.
However, it also happens that you cannot turn on Bluetooth by pressing keys. Read on to find out what needs to be done in this case.
For reference! Some laptop manufacturers combine the Bluetooth activation key with the Wi-Fi activation button! A good example is models from the Acer Aspire line.
Install and update drivers
If bluetooth does not work, then most likely the problem is hidden at the software level. For example, quite often a function is not available due to a lack of drivers. Therefore, first of all, look at Device Manager. You can get into it like this: press Windows + R, type the command “devmgmt.msc” into the “Open” line and click OK. Then stick to next plan actions:
- Go to Device Manager and find your Bluetooth adapter. As a rule, it is displayed in the item " Network adapters", "Bluetooth radio modules" or separately.
- Next, take a close look at the blue Bluetooth icon. If there is no marking on it or nearby in the form of a black arrow or exclamation mark, then everything is in order. If there is an arrow, then you need to enable the Bluetooth adapter through the context menu by clicking “Enable”. An exclamation point on the icon indicates problems with the drivers. Just download them from the manufacturer’s website or click on “Update” in the “Driver” tab.
- Still unable to turn on Bluetooth? Then, through the Control Panel, go to the “Network and Sharing Center”. Next, click on “Change adapter settings.” Right-click on “Bluetooth Network Connections” and then on “Enable”.
By the way, this way you can enable Bluetooth on Windows 7 and Vista.
Enable and configure Bluetooth on laptops with different operating systems
It's easy to connect to bluetooth and use it. However, each OS version has some features. Therefore, we decided to tell you how you can enable data transfer via wireless network in Windows 7, 8, 10 and even on the “old” XP, and also what is the easiest way to connect other devices to a laptop via Bluetooth.
- In the “seven” you need to go through Start to “Devices and Printers”. A window will open in which all gadgets connected to the laptop will be displayed. Here you can “connect” a new device via Bluetooth. We talked above about exactly how to enable this function on a laptop with Windows 7.
- Owners and users of laptops running Windows 8 must first open the sidebar via the Win + C key combination, and then click “Options”. All you have to do is select “Change computer settings”, click on “Bluetooth” and turn the switch to the ON position.
- In Windows 10, Bluetooth is turned on almost the same as in the G8. You need to open “Settings” through Start. Next, go to the “Devices” section. The last step is to select “Bluetooth” and activate the “On” position. After which the laptop will search for devices with which it can be paired.
- You can enable and configure Bluetooth on a laptop with Windows XP as follows. Let's go to Start. Click on Control Panel. Then go to the “Bluetooth devices” section. In this menu we add a new connection using a special wizard.
For reference! On the Internet there is special programs, which allow you to turn on Bluetooth and configure connections via this communication channel. One of the most convenient and popular utilities is Widcomm.
Possible difficulties and ways to solve them
What to do if the laptop does not find a device to connect via Bluetooth? Most likely, your tablet, smartphone or some other gadget has invisibility turned on for unrelated objects. Or detection is disabled on the laptop in the Bluetooth settings. You need to click on the module with the secondary mouse button, go to the “Settings” tab and check the box next to “Allow devices to detect this computer.”
If you still can’t connect, then the device is probably out of range of the radio module. You need to place it as close to the laptop as possible. Although it is believed that the range when transmitting data via Bluetooth is 10-50 m, but in reality this value is much lower. After all, in residential premises and offices there are various devices (cordless telephones, microwave ovens etc.), which create interference and interfere with detection.