blacksheep
Feb 10, 2007, 06:42 PM
The Bluetooth and Windows XP in Parallels FAQ and Guide
Question: Can I use my <insert apple model here>'s built in Bluetooth while inside a Windows XP virtual machine?
Answer: No. You can not directly access the built in bluetooth hardware. If you look under your Control Panel/Bluetooth Devices|Hardware tab you will notice nothing is listed. Alternatively you will notice that there is no such bluetooth devices listed in System/Hardware.
Question: Why not?
Answer: Because OS X has the Bluetooth hardware allocated and in use already, making it inaccessble to Parallels or your virtual machine. Until the Parallels team figures out a way to "hot swap" between OS X and your VM, this is just the way it is. To prove my point, if you use Bootcamp you will see the bluetooth hardware is available. That is because OS X is not running (duh) and therefore it is free for the other OS to use.
Question: You lie! I am using my <brand name> Bluetooth keyboard/mouse/phone/etc under my Windows XP virtual machine!
Answer: No you are not. You are simply using these devices under OS X and Parallels is passing the input to the virtual machine. Some devices work, some do not. But your VM is not directly using them..it is receiving input from Parallels which is taking it from OS X. BIG DIFFERENCE.
Question: But I want to be able to use my <name of bluetooth device> while in my virtual machine! Wahhhh! Wahhhh! Booo hoo!
Answer: You can. Just purchase a USB Bluetooth dongle/adapter and you are in business. Here is how I got mine working...
1: Buy a USB bluetooth dongle/adapter (ebay, etc). They cost $15-$20..if not cheaper.
2: Run your virtual machine and wait for it to fully boot.
3: Put the bluetooth dongle's driver disk into the cd-rom drive (if required, some may not come with driver disc, implying they might not be needed...XP found drivers for mine)
4: Plug your bluetooth dongle into an available USB port on your Mac.
5: Depending on your Parallels configuration, you may have to manually allow the USB device to be mapped to the VM. Either turn AutoConnect ON for USB devices in your VM's config, or select the USB button on the bottom right of the Parallels VM window and click on the name of the device you want mapped. In this case, my bluetooth dongle has a name of "SiW", so I click "SiW" and now Windows XP can see it and it is mapped.
6: Windows XP will report new hardware was found. Now just finish installing as you normally would.
Feel free to PM me with questions...if I get the answers I will update this.
Created: 2/10/07
Test machine specs as of writing: Macbook Intel Core Duo, Parallels 3094 Beta 2, Windows XP SP2 on Bootcamp partition
Question: Can I use my <insert apple model here>'s built in Bluetooth while inside a Windows XP virtual machine?
Answer: No. You can not directly access the built in bluetooth hardware. If you look under your Control Panel/Bluetooth Devices|Hardware tab you will notice nothing is listed. Alternatively you will notice that there is no such bluetooth devices listed in System/Hardware.
Question: Why not?
Answer: Because OS X has the Bluetooth hardware allocated and in use already, making it inaccessble to Parallels or your virtual machine. Until the Parallels team figures out a way to "hot swap" between OS X and your VM, this is just the way it is. To prove my point, if you use Bootcamp you will see the bluetooth hardware is available. That is because OS X is not running (duh) and therefore it is free for the other OS to use.
Question: You lie! I am using my <brand name> Bluetooth keyboard/mouse/phone/etc under my Windows XP virtual machine!
Answer: No you are not. You are simply using these devices under OS X and Parallels is passing the input to the virtual machine. Some devices work, some do not. But your VM is not directly using them..it is receiving input from Parallels which is taking it from OS X. BIG DIFFERENCE.
Question: But I want to be able to use my <name of bluetooth device> while in my virtual machine! Wahhhh! Wahhhh! Booo hoo!
Answer: You can. Just purchase a USB Bluetooth dongle/adapter and you are in business. Here is how I got mine working...
1: Buy a USB bluetooth dongle/adapter (ebay, etc). They cost $15-$20..if not cheaper.
2: Run your virtual machine and wait for it to fully boot.
3: Put the bluetooth dongle's driver disk into the cd-rom drive (if required, some may not come with driver disc, implying they might not be needed...XP found drivers for mine)
4: Plug your bluetooth dongle into an available USB port on your Mac.
5: Depending on your Parallels configuration, you may have to manually allow the USB device to be mapped to the VM. Either turn AutoConnect ON for USB devices in your VM's config, or select the USB button on the bottom right of the Parallels VM window and click on the name of the device you want mapped. In this case, my bluetooth dongle has a name of "SiW", so I click "SiW" and now Windows XP can see it and it is mapped.
6: Windows XP will report new hardware was found. Now just finish installing as you normally would.
Feel free to PM me with questions...if I get the answers I will update this.
Created: 2/10/07
Test machine specs as of writing: Macbook Intel Core Duo, Parallels 3094 Beta 2, Windows XP SP2 on Bootcamp partition