Several weeks ago, I had the need to get several photos from my cell phone to my computer. Only I discovered that the USB bluetooth adapter I had does not work with Windows Vista. I tried everything I could to get it to work anyway, using the Windows utility. The company that makes it claims that it will be compatible with Vista “soon.” So that night instead of a quick file transfer, I emailed myself 25 photos with text messages. It took forever.

A couple of weeks ago, my mouse for the laptop broke and while I do like the touchpad, there are just some times you need a mouse, and to tell you the truth, I was going through withdrawal. I discovered my other, corded, mouse does not work with Microsoft Vista. No surprise there, really. I gave away the working mouse and the adapter to two of the girls yesterday, no sense in having them around if I can’t use them.

So early the week before last, I finally got around to seeing about the bluetooth piece to go in my laptop (I had been kicking myself for not upgrading with that from the start). There were three of them to choose from with prices $20, $50, and $150. Not sure which one would for sure work, I got on to Dell chat and was surprised when the tech told me the $20 one would work best with my laptop, that the $50 one had some problems sometimes with Vista. He also suggested I get a bluetooth mouse since the device can take up to five concurrent connections.

I tell you what, this thing is freaking awesome!

The bluetooth piece was very easy to install. All I had to do was shut down the computer, unplug it, remove the battery, pop open this little side panel along the inside of the battery compartment (towards the outside of the laptop), plug in the bluetooth, and put it all back together and run the CD.

I just use the Microsoft Bluetooth utility that came with Vista. It was very simple to set up a partnership with my phone, just make your device discoverable, right-click on the Bluetooth icon in the system tray and pick “Add a Bluetooth Device” and let Windows walk you through it. I have mine set up to pretty much allow everything automatically. So I can browse the phone folders from within My Computer and as long as I have them both on and within 30 feet of one another, I can go to a photo, for example, on the phone, pick send, bluetooth, my laptop, and it will automatically show up in my Bluetooth Exchange Folder. To set up automatic like that, you have to do it on both devices. On the phone, go to your bluetooth setup area and then device history. Find the computer you want and change access to automatic. On the computer, you can find these options in the Options tab of the bluetooth utility.

The mouse was a little bit trickier. It’s a Kensington Si670m wireless optical bluetooth mouse. At first, I had a heart attack. I put in the CD and was told I had the wrong operating system version. But after messing with it some more, I got it to go. I learned something very important through all this — make sure you uninstall the drivers to any previous mice before using this one! I also downloaded the newest version of the drivers from Kensington’s website. Do not install Mouseworks. That’s apparently not Vista compatible. Just install the drivers after removing any other mice, then connect it to the bluetooth by making it discoverable, and etc. (Don’t use a passkey.) Once I did all that, it worked! Even more interesting was that by right clicking on the icon in the system tray for my touchpad, and picking “pointing device properties” then the bluetooth tab… I get a battery meter!

I am digging this mouse though, totally loving this. It works so much better than my old USB one. And I apparently wanted all of you to know that three weeks ago when I started this post but I don’t know where I was really going with it anymore, so… I guess that’s it. :)